IMPROVEMENT SCIENCE SUMMIT: RESEARCH METHODS TO TRANSFORM HEALTHCARE PI: Kathleen R. Stevens February 16, 2012 ABSTRACT This grant proposes the Improvement Science Summit as an open-to-all, 1 1/2 day conference to advance methodology, topics, and collaboration in improvement research. The 2012 conference theme, IQ for QI: Discovery and Spread, reflects the spirit and goal of the conference. The Summit is a platform for growing individual capability and collective capacity for conducting landmark studies in healthcare improvement. In its 3rd year, the yet fledgling annual Summit is poised to reach new heights. In the two previous Summits, only the description of the R&D phase of the Improvement Science Research Network (ISRN) could be described. Now, with the ISRN fully operational, the Summit is a venue in which to further the core business of conducting improvement research studies. The Summit meets a national need. Transforming health care and achieving quality improvement and patient safety initiatives are national priorities. Yet in this field, there is insufficient research, insufficient rigor, and few scientiss engaged in studies to demonstrate which initiatives are effective, which are amenable to spread across settings, and which are capable of sustainment. As a relatively new competency in health professional education, the nation's research capacity to study quality improvement falls well behind the need to discover 'what works' and there are few collaboratives and little infrastructure to advance the field. Leveraging a close alignment with the momentum created by the nationally-funded Improvement Science Research Network (Stevens, 2009a) and the Clinical Translational Research Award program, this Summit will contribute significantly to national capacity of health care scientists and practice scholars to rigorously evaluate improvement strategies. The Summit program will be planned by the national leaders of the Improvement Science Research Network Steering Council. The conference goal is to move forward the thinking, methods, infrastructure, and national research partnership capacity to conduct rigorous improvement research. Following the conference, materials will be published for wider dissemination through a number of venues. Materials distribution will include streaming video recordings of key presentations, conference proceedings, and manuscripts. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Public Health Relevance Statement Quality improvement and patient safety in healthcare are high priorities held by the federal government, accrediting bodies, regulatory agencies, and patient-advocacy groups; yet insufficient progress has been made in developing the underlying science about how to improve effectiveness and safety in a systems context. The goal of this project is to provide a conference venue in which the nation's healthcare providers and scientists can engage in developing and conducting rigorous improvement research studies, and expand capacity to do so, with a target of accelerating interprofessional studies that show us how to make care safe and effective in acute care settings.
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