Mike Briddon, IHI Open School Editorial Director, wrote the following post about a tour this week at Harvard Medical School — where he got a peek into the future of medical education.I didn’t expect to be stressed. I didn’t expect my heart to race or my palms to sweat. Or to hear a patient coughing and asking for help. “Please,” the wheezy patient implored, “just do something!” Mr. Jones, a life-like mannequin who could talk, blink, and tell our untrained group how we were letting him die, was ... read full post

This week, Dr. Don Berwick answers a question from Cathy Ellis, PT, about the safety issues that arise from not having complete 24/7 health care "How do you think outcomes would change if United States health care was provided seven days a week and not 'shut down' to a large extent on weekends?" For the past eight weeks, Dr. Berwick, President Emeritus and Senior Fellow at IHI and Former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare ... read full post

Editor’s Note Colleen McCormick is a fifth-year medical student in the combined MD/MPH Physician Leadership Development Program at Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine in Dayton, Ohio. For two months she used the IHI Open School Quality Improvement Practicum to conduct her first quality improvement project. In this final blog post, Colleen reflects on her project and her progress as a student trying to make a change in the health care system. You can catch up on her previous po ... read full post

This week, Dr. Don Berwick answers a question from @Ensor_K submitted via Twitter "How can students drive improvement, no matter what role they're in?" Berwick, President Emeritus and Senior Fellow at IHI and Former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, answers one of your questions every week in our new blog series, “Ask Berwick.” You can catch up on previous "Ask Berwick" Q ... read full post

By Eilidh G M Gunn, Medical Student, University of Dundee, Scotland As final-year medical students at the University of Dundee, Scotland, we are lucky enough to have the opportunity to undertake the IHI program as part of a month-long block surrounding patient safety and quality improvement. Ninewells Hospital and NHS Tayside, the trust where I am based, has longstanding patient safety and quality improvement initiatives and programs in place, which allow students like myself to become part of ... read full post