The IHI Open School is an innovative learning community where you can take free online courses, earn certificates, network with peers and experts, and gain confidence and skills in quality improvement and patient safety to change health care.
Seven years ago, IHI launched the Open School, a learning community dedicated to fostering essential skills that traditional health professions schools weren’t teaching: quality improvement and patient safety. Since then, the IHI Open School has grown to include more than 30 online courses — which also cover topics such as leadership, person-centered care, and population health — and a Chapter network of more than 700 groups in 70 countries. This month, we hit another milestone: You and your peers have completed more than two million courses since the Open School launched. Thank you for making this progress possible! We hope you’ll continue spreading the word about the Open School with our newest course, OS 101: Introduction to the IHI Open School.
Most health professionals know that clinical care contributes just a fraction to a person’s overall health compared to social factors such as income, housing, and education. So how can health care better address the multiple determinants of health? Lisa Miller, an MPH student in Oregon, tackled that question through the IHI Open School Quality Improvement Practicum. She worked with a team at a primary care clinic to improve the process for screening for patients’ social needs so that the medical team could create better care plans. We asked her how she pulled it off for our blog.
You might know how to diagnose and treat arthritis, but can a younger health care professional really know what it’s like to be 80 years old? Reuters reports that medical students in Poland are getting a sense of their patients’ struggles with suits that simulate aging by restricting mobility and reducing vision. The suits are arriving at a key time in Europe’s medical training, when providers are seeing more elderly patients. Learn more about experiencing the life of a patient in a three-minute video about patient shadowing. (On a mobile device? Click here to watch on YouTube.)
Community Updates
Welcome, New Chapters
Cruz Roja Mexicana, Mexico
Winthrop University Hospital, Mineola, New York, USA
Dr. David R. Calkins (1948–2006) believed he could change health care through quality improvement. To honor his achievements, IHI created the David Calkins Memorial Scholarship, which provides a full ride to IHI’s National Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care to one full-time student who demonstrates a commitment to QI through a 500-word essay. Read about how last year’s Calkins Scholarship recipient grew from her experience at the Forum in this blog post. (The deadline for applications is Friday, October 9.)
Each semester, the IHI Open School offers funding to help Chapters with their events — including recruitment meetings, expert panels, and health screenings in the community. Tomorrow is the deadline to apply for funds during the fall semester.Learn more here.
Most health professionals know that clinical care contributes just a fraction to a person’s overall health compared to social factors such as income, housing, and education. So how can health care better address the multiple determinants of health? Lisa Miller, an MPH student in Oregon, tackled that question through the 
