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"What Matters to You?" Day in June

Every year in early June, "What Matters to You?" Day aims to encourage and support more meaningful conversations between people who provide health and social care and the people, families, and carers who receive health and social care.

The Power of Four Words: "What Matters to You?"

What matters to IHI is that those who work in health care understand the impact that asking, “What matters to you?” has on quality, safety, and the joy of the health care workforce.

In their 2012 New England Journal of Medicine article, Dr. Michael Barry and Susan Edgman-Levitan introduced the concept of asking, “What matters to you?” in addition to “What is the matter?” in the context of implementing shared decision making. Their ambition was to increase clinicians’ awareness of important issues in their patients’ lives that could drive customized plans of care.

IHI believes that “What Matters” is a simple, yet profound concept that is key to creating deeply personal engagements with patients and their family members, a deeper understanding of what really matters to them, and is the foundation of developing genuine partnerships for co-creating health.

By introducing this concept, Michael and Susan unlocked in health care leaders around the world the potential to solve problems that matter to their patients. The concept of "What Matters" also has a profound impact on the joy of the health care workforce.

"What Matters to You?" Day in June: Need Inspiration?

While "What matters to you?" is important to practice every day, an annual celebration of "What Matters to You?" Day is marked in early June.

Organizations all over the world have cultivated the power of "What matters to you?" Below are some resources that might help your organization celebrate "What Matters to You?" Day in June.

What Matters to You? Global Movement

What Matters to You? (Health Improvement Scotland)

What Matters to You? (BC Patient Safety and Quality Council)

Stories by In Search of Mangomoments

Video clip: "11-Year-Old Girl Grants Wishes to Nursing Home Residents"

"What Matters" to Older Adults? A Toolkit for Health Systems to Design Better Care with Older Adults (IHI Age-Friendly Health Systems)

"What Matters to You?" Conversation Guide for Improving Joy in Work (IHI)

Maureen Bisognano: How WMTY Started (Danish Society for Patient Safety)

Internal Reflections: "What Matters" in Our Work at IHI

In honor of "What Matters to You?" Day, IHI asked our teams to consider what mattered in the work we are doing across North America. We are pleased to see the message of “What Matters” permeating our work. Learn more >>

Maureen Bisognano: What Matters to You Matters to Me (Danish Society for Patient Safety)

Examples of "What Matters" in Different Settings

The videos below provide examples of the impact of "What Matters" for patients in different clinical settings and for the health care workforce.

Clinical Examples: Asking "WHAT MATTERS?" in Different Care Settings

Asking "What Matters to You?" Is a Powerful Question in End-of-Life Care

How Asking Staff "What Matters to You?" Improves Joy in Work

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Organizational Trustworthiness in Health Care

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement partnered with the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation to identify key organizational-level drivers and change ideas that repair, build, and strengthen trust between health care organizations and clinicians, and between health care organizations and the communities they serve. This report describes a theory of how to repair, build, and strengthen trust, presented as a three-step approach with specific change ideas and associated measures for improvement.
Telemedicine: Ensuring Safe, Equitable, Person-Centered Virtual Care

This white paper describes a framework to guide health care organizations in their efforts to provide safe, equitable, person-centered telemedicine. The framework includes six elements to consider: access, privacy, diagnostic accuracy, communication, psychological and emotional safety, and human factors and system design.
100 Million Healthier Lives Engaging People with Lived Experience Tools

This collection of resources, developed as part of the 100 Million Healthier Lives initiative, provides key information and tools to support communities and organizations to authentically engage people with lived experience in co-design and implementation efforts.

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"What Matters to You?" Conversation Guide for Improving Joy in Work
With burnout and staff turnover in health care continuing to rise at alarming rates, this resource is intended to help leaders guide conversations with colleagues about “What matters to you?” — Step 1 of the Four Steps for Leaders, described in detail in the IHI White Paper, IHI Framework for Improving Joy in Work.
Flipping Health Care
The authors argue that to meet today’s health care challenges, we need to flip our thinking to develop innovative models of care that can improve health, improve care delivery, and lower costs — the goals of the Triple Aim.
Flipping Primary Health Care: A Personal Story
This article describes the experience of one of the authors as he experienced having to “flip” his primary health care (i.e., putting the person, not the disease or the condition, at the center of improving health and health care), and describes enabling factors and lessons for patient-centered primary care redesign.
WIHI: Realizing “What Matters” (to Patients and Families)
January 14, 2016 | A few years ago, IHI and others began suggesting to providers that instead of routinely asking patients “What’s the matter with you?” they should begin asking “What matters to you?”