Summary
- Behind every click and download in 2025 was a signal of health care’s priorities: equity, safety, and workforce well-being. Here’s what the data tells us, and how it guides the year ahead.
Measuring What Matters
At IHI, we often say, “Measure what matters,” so we looked back at the most popular content and resources of 2025 to see what mattered most to the IHI community. The data tells a clear story: workforce well-being and health equity led the way, alongside enduring priorities like patient safety and emerging frameworks such as the Quintuple Aim. These aren’t just trends; they reflect the values and challenges shaping health care today.
Signals of Change: Workforce Well-Being and Health Equity
Two of the most-read newsletter stories focused on workforce well-being: Guiding Principles for Improving Health Care Workforce Well-Being and Improving Workforce Well-Being. This emphasis underscores a growing recognition that caring for those who care for others is essential to system resilience. In fact, kindness, empathy, listening, and curiosity may be the antidote to some health care challenges, as identified in our most popular Turn on the Lights Podcast episode of the year, “Kindness and What Matters to You,” with IHI President Emerita Maureen Bisognano. The most downloaded white paper, Advancing Health Equity: An Approach to Systematically Identify and Evaluate Health Disparities, shows that equity is becoming a cornerstone of improvement efforts. The demand for this new framework demonstrates the importance of a consistent method to identify, quantify, track, and report health equity gaps among patient populations.
Leadership and Ideas That Shape the Future
Leadership moments drove engagement in 2025. Our most popular LinkedIn post announced Dr. Sylvia Trent-Adams as IHI’s new President and CEO, a milestone widely celebrated by our community. Another top post recapped Dr. Don Berwick’s IHI Forum keynote, in which he explored the evolution of quality improvement from individual projects to system-wide adoption, and the duty of leaders to ensure safety and quality. These conversations remind us that leadership isn’t just vision; it’s the ability to turn ideas into system-wide impact.
Tools and Resources That Drive Improvement
Practical tools remain timeless. IHI’s PDSA Worksheet, Quality Improvement Essentials Toolkit, and SBAR Tool were among the most downloaded resources in 2025. These choices affirm that while health care evolves, the fundamentals of improvement remain critical. The Quintuple Aim improvement topic page ranked among the most visited, reflecting growing interest in frameworks that embed workforce well-being and health equity into system priorities. IHI authors also contributed to advancing the field through scholarship, publishing 38 articles in peer-reviewed journals in 2025. Highlights include “Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Driving Better Outcomes and Efficiency” (International Journal for Quality in Healthcare), “The Value — and the Values — of Listening” (Mayo Clinic Proceedings), and “Advancing AI in Healthcare: Three Strategic Roles for Quality and Safety Leaders” (BMJ Quality & Safety).
Learning Together: Education and Collaboration
Engagement extended beyond reading and downloading. Our YouTube channel saw increased viewership, led by webinars like IHI Patient Safety Learning Series and Chaos to Capability with Care Operating Systems. Education programs thrived as well – demand for RCA2 far exceeded initial expectations, prompting an additional offering in March.
Looking Ahead with Gratitude
From measurement to meaning, these insights are more than a look back; they’re a roadmap for what’s next. Your engagement drives our mission and shows us what truly matters to each of you. In 2026, we’ll build on this momentum, exploring new ideas, tackling persistent challenges, and amplifying what works. Here’s to another year of health care improvement, together.