Advancing Health Equity Through Quality Improvement
Advancing Health Equity Through System-Level Transformation
Helping organizations make equity a strategic priority and sustain measurable improvement over time.
Health equity means ensuring that care quality does not vary because of race, ethnicity, language, geography, income, disability, or other personal characteristics.
The IHI Framework for Achieving Health Equity provides the organizing structure for our work, making equity a priority by addressing the determinants of health, reducing institutional racism, and building community partnerships that extend the reach of equitable care.
Our health equity consulting work supports organizations to:
- Make health equity a strategic priority
- Build structures and processes that support equity work
- Address clinical and social drivers of health within organizational control
- Decrease institutional racism and bias
- Partner with community organizations to improve health and equity
This multi-prong approach enables organizations to align leadership, measurement, and improvement around equitable outcomes and sustain progress over time.
Patrícia Loggetto, MPP
Project Coordinator, Central & South America Regional Program Department of Global Pediatric Medicine St. Jude Global
Project Coordinator, Central & South America Regional Program Department of Global Pediatric Medicine St. Jude Global
The team at IHI was very responsive and willing to co-design with us. The sessions were very well executed, with relevant content, and were always ready to support the teams participating in the course. The coaches’ didact was excellent, and they were very empathic, creating important connections with the teams.
What This Looks Like in Practice
How We Work With You to Support Health Equity
Our approach emphasizes flexibility, responsiveness, and shared learning, helping teams maintain momentum while avoiding rigid implementation.
IHI provides consulting, guidance, and capability-building to support health equity improvement across systems and regions.
Our health equity consulting work supports organizations to:
- Assess equity challenges and system dynamics
- Co-design equity-focused improvement strategies with leaders and communities
- Apply improvement science to test, refine, and scale interventions
- Build local skills, data capability, and leadership capacity
- Support spread and sustainability across sites and populations
Explore How IHI’s Frameworks Advance Health Equity Throughout Your Organization:
Improving Health Equity: Strategies and Lessons Learned (Guide)
Real‑world strategies and lessons culled from eight health systems using five‑component Framework for Achieving Health Equity to guide their work.
What Is Health Equity, and Why Does It Matter? (Video)
David R. Williams of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and IHI’s Don Berwick discuss why equity is foundational to quality care.
Achieving Health Equity: A Guide for Health Care Organizations (White Paper)
Practical guidance and tools to address inequities, reduce disparities, and strengthen connections with staff, patients, and communities.
Maintaining a Commitment to Health Equity (IHI Innovation Report)
Explore how health systems sustain equity work amid changing funding and policy environments.
Leadership for Health Equity Professional Development Program (Course)
Build leadership capability to address inequities, improve outcomes, and drive equitable improvement.
There is No Quality Without Equity
Through consultative partnerships grounded in improvement science, data, and codesign, IHI collaborates with governments, health systems, and global organizations to embed equity into systems, redesign care delivery, transfer skills and build the capability needed to sustain equitable care across cultures and geographies.
Partner With IHI