IHI.org asked Lucian Leape for his thoughts on the website and what he’d like to see it accomplish. Here is his reply.

IHI.org can make a big difference in so many ways. The first is providing what I call the basic science information — that is, information about the theory of error prevention, what we know about the science of applying human factors principles, and how you use them.

We will provide health care professionals with tools they can actually use in their own practice. And we will be able to provide them with lessons learned from others as they have tried implementing these changes. So if, for example, a hospital wants to implement computerized prescriber order entry, it will be able to turn to IHI.org and tap into the experience of other hospitals and see what the pitfalls were, how they avoided mistakes, and what they learned.

I hope that as IHI.org becomes a sounding board people can use to raise questions and get advice and information, we will have responses not only from others in the health care community who are dealing with similar issues — in effect becoming a big support group — but also from experts. We would draw from the people who have been leaders in these activities and say, "Boil down for us the five major lessons you learned, and let’s put them on the site."

People everywhere can sound off on a whole range of topics. For instance, I think we’re all interested in what is takes to establish a culture of safety — complex concepts like how to harmonize a non-punitive environment with the need for maintaining standards and having some form of discipline for people who indeed do have misconduct, not just errors. I think we’ll hear from people interested in getting doctors and nurses and others to work more effectively in teams. And then there’s the issue of full disclosure to patients — empowering patients and engaging them as meaningful partners in their care: What does this involve? How have hospitals accomplished this?

Sure, there’s a lot of material out there about patient safety already. But nobody else has a single source where you can find information on all aspects of improving patient safety. I hope that over time — within the first year — we develop into a highly credible resource that has up-to-date information on all the major subjects and guides people to the places they can go for more details. We can be sort of a one-stop-shopping type of place.

The audience for IHI.org is potentially huge. The obvious users, of course, are doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and administrators. But I hope that policy-makers use the site too, so that they have a better understanding of the work underway to improve patient safety. IHI.org is interested in making it easier and easier for people to communicate with and learn from one another, and we’re getting enough experience in improving safety that there’s something worth saying.