Resources
Salzburg Global Seminar Session 565 – Better Health Care: How do we learn about improvement?
Summary
A fundamental question for the field of healthcare improvement is the extent to which the results achieved can be attributed to the changes that were implemented and whether or not these changes are generalizable. Answering these questions is particularly challenging because the healthcare context is complex, and the interventions are dynamic and multi-dimensional.
In July 2016, sixty leaders in improvement implementation and research from 28 countries convened to discuss better ways to learn about improvement and address questions of attribution, generalizability, and rigor during a Salzburg Global Seminar, spearheaded by ASSIST, entitled “Better Health Care: how do we learn about improvement?” To capture and disseminate insights from the seminar, the International Journal for Quality in Health Care invited participants to share reflections and learning from the event in this special supplement.
In addition, here is the Salzburg Global Seminar framing paper and session report. For those looking for a practical guide to designing evaluations of quality improvement work, please refer to this material: “Evaluating Complex Health Interventions: A Guide to Rigorous Research Designs” (co-authored by researchers from USAID’s Applying Science to Strengthen and Improve Systems (ASSIST) Project/University Research Co., LLC and Institute for Health Care Improvement (IHI) and published by AcademyHealth).
Publication
International Journal for Quality in Health Care
Friday, April 20, 2018
View Articles
An editorial by Rashad Massoud, Leighann Kimble, Don Goldmann, John Øvretveit, and Nancy Dixon serves as an introduction to the other articles (links below):
- Editorial: Salzburg Global Seminar Session 565—‘Better Health Care: how do we learn about improvement?’ Massoud MR, Kimble LE, Goldmann D, Øvretveit J, Dixon N.
- Quality improvement and emerging global health priorities Mensah Abrampah N, Syed SB, Hirschhorn LR, Nambiar B, Iqbal U, Garcia-Elorrio E, Chattu VK, Devnani M, Kelley E.
- A framework for learning about improvement: embedded implementation and evaluation design to optimize learning Barry D, Kimble LE, Nambiar B, Parry G, Jha A, Chattu VK, Massoud MR, Goldmann D.
- Unpacking the black box of improvement Øvretveit J, Dolan-Branton L, Marx M, Reid A, Reid J, Agins B.
- Adapting improvements to context: when, why and how? Ramaswamy R, Reed J, Livesley N, Boguslavsky V, Garcia-Elorrio E, Sax S, Diarra H, Kimble LE, Parry G.
- Research versus practice in quality improvement? Understanding how we can bridge the gap Hirschhorn LR, Ramaswamy R, Devnani M, Wandersman A, Simpson LA, Garcia-Elorrio E.
- Practical recommendations for the evaluation of improvement initiatives Parry G, Coly A, Goldmann A, Rowe AK, Chattu VK, Logiudice D, Rabrenovic M, Nambiar B.
- Learning about improvement to address global health and healthcare challenges—lessons and the future John Ovretveit.