What role can students play in improving care? Justin Slade, fourth-year medical student at Boston University School of Medicine and former Open School Chapter Leader, recently appeared on WIHI to share his experience in health care quality improvement. As a first-year medical student, he worked on a project that helped improve care for sickle cell patients at Boston Medical Center. Below, he explains how students can help accelerate improvement.Open School What role can students play in improvi ... read full post

Duke University's Quality and Innovation Scholars Program (QISP) matches students with physicians and leaders in the Duke Health System to carry out health care improvement projects. So far, the program has reached almost 70 students. In the following interview, Chapter leaders Kathryn Hutchins and Maria Andrews explain how the Chapter got the program off the ground and how other Chapters can create their own practicum. OS How did the Quality and Innovation Scholars Program (QISP) get started? ... 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

Every week for the last three years, Dr. James Moses has driven from Boston Medical Center (BMC) to IHI's office in Cambridge. As the IHI Open School's Academic Advisor, he helps our team determine priorities, develop content, and engage our community of learners around the world. Last week, for the first time, we went to visit him. Dr. Moses is a pediatrician and the Medical Director of Quality Improvement at BMC, a safety net hospital with 496 beds and about 6,000 employees. He invited our e ... 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