Ravi Patel, a student at Valdosta State University, had a kidney transplant after getting dialysis three times a week for almost three years. He describes how the experience inspired him to study health care administration and join the IHI Open School.

In the following essay, Sigal Israilov, a student at the City of New York Macaulay Honors College and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, describes her work on a team that improved the discharge process at Mount Sinai Medical Center — leading to a 73 percent increase in discharges before noon. If you're interested in leading your own quality improvement initiative, check out the IHI Open School Practicum — a guide to applying quality improvement in your own local project. (Note This ess ... read full post

In hospitals, comprehensive blood tests of inpatients are commonplace — way too common, in some cases. The Society for Hospital Medicine says repetitive blood tests are often unwarranted and can lead to harm in several ways — causing anemia, lost staff time, and significant costs. Matthew Cerasale, MD, a resident in the Henry Ford Health System and IHI Open School learner, decided to try to improve his own practice of ordering regular blood tests as part of a quality improvement elective. He the ... read full post

Population health is not too different from preparing for a hike. Let’s do some research.

Students present their work at the IHI Open School Chapter Congress.Whew. The IHI Open School team is back in our Cambridge office after our biggest event of the year — the National Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care. Last week, more than 5,000 health leaders descended one of the world’s largest Marriott hotels, in Orlando, Florida, to teach and learn from each other. We heard from writer and surgeon Atul Gawande, MD; Good Morning America host and cancer survivor Robin Roberts; and Don ... read full post