Choosing what makes the cut for a “year-end favorites” list is hard when you reflect on the work you’ve done. Each project brings back its own unique, positive memories — especially when we look back on 2018. During the last 12 months, our team at IHI has tackled both new and familiar topics, including safety, joy in work, improvement, and the psychology of change. We created numerous blog posts, videos, publications, tools, and audio programs. And we hope you found value in each one of them.
You may recall some of the content we shared this year, but perhaps you missed a few. Which ones do we think are worth revisiting? Here, in no particular order, are IHI’s “top 10 picks” from 2018.
Psychology of Change Framework. Just one month after its release, almost 4,000 people have read this
IHI White Paper. This comprehensive document presents a five-domain framework for understanding the psychology of change — that is, what motivates people to drive change — and shares methods that organizations can use to catalyze improvement. If you’d rather listen than read, check out the paper’s co-authors on a
WIHI that explored how to activate the human side of change.
- Building the Will and Skill to Be a Clinical Improver. Our most popular WIHI of the year explores why improvement isn’t optional for clinicians. One of the show’s panelists, IHI Senior Fellow Brent James, shares what clinicians need to know about leading improvement in a related blog post.
- How to Speak So Leaders Will Listen. In our second-most popular blog post of 2018, IHI President and CEO Derek Feeley explains why evidence isn’t enough to get leaders to support your ideas. “Evidence is important, but insufficient,” Feeley writes. “You must also understand context. Leaders want to know how it fits with other work your organization is doing.” Feeley also shares strategies for making your case to leaders and how to influence them beyond an intellectual level.
- "Flipped" Discharge Can Help Your Largest Patient Population. Older adult patients face an increased risk of adverse medical events after being hospitalized. Researchers and health care leaders from the International Innovators Network, led by IHI and The Commonwealth Fund, sought to learn from Sheffield Teaching Hospitals in the UK how to reverse the traditional approach to discharge. An innovation case study describes how assessing patient needs after discharge reduced adverse events and shortened hospital length of stay. One of IHI’s top blog posts of the year shares how Penn Medicine implemented this “flipped” discharge model after seeing it done in Sheffield.
- Visual Management Board. Looking for a way to monitor your improvement projects? Our practical tool, released in October, includes visuals that you can incorporate into daily huddles. It provides at-a-glance information to help staff coordinate their work and keep track of progress. (For more on daily huddles, read another popular blog post that describes how to conduct huddles that sustain improvement.)
- IHI Innovation System. This White Paper provides an in-depth look at the IHI Innovation System, including our 90-Day Learning and Test Cycles. It analyzes the successes and errors in developing our own innovation system and shares examples to help you structure and manage your own innovation system.
- 10 Mindfulness Exercises for the Workplace. It can be challenging to catch your breath amidst your busy schedule, but studies associate mindfulness — that is, being aware of your surroundings in the present moment — with better health and well-being. Try these 10 quick exercises from our most popular blog post of 2018 to incorporate mindfulness into your daily work. If you want to take a deeper dive into the topic, check out our online course on mindfulness.
- How Can We Turn Burnout into Engagement? It’s a question more and more health care leaders are asking. In our most popular video from 2018, IHI Chief Clinical and Safety Officer Tejal Gandhi explains why increasing joy in work is key to alleviating burnout. A related blog post shares three lessons for increasing engagement and joy in work.
- QI Project Management. Managing an improvement project is critical for improving care delivery in your organization. That’s why we released a tool that outlines strategies for successfully managing QI projects and offers specific ideas for each strategy. It also provides a workspace for you to note your next steps to implement the strategies.
- Changing the Narrative of Substance Use Disorders. This year at the IHI National Forum, the Open School launched the Recover Hope Campaign with the aim of improving the lives of 50,000 people affected by substance use disorders by 2020. We’re calling on health professionals to reduce stigma and improve treatment of substance use disorders around the world. Join the Campaign by taking the pledge to recognize substance use disorders as a medical condition — not a moral failing — and to stand for patient-first, recovery-focused language.
Which of these resources was most helpful for you? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below.
