Health Equity & Quality Take Center Stage at IHI Forum

Health care professionals worldwide gather to share practical, evidence-based approaches to improving health and health care

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) has convened its annual IHI Forum, the longest running gathering focused on quality improvement in health care. For more than three decades, the IHI Forum has connected, inspired, and energized professionals across health and health care while equipping them with practical tools and insights to improve the health of populations and achieve safe, equitable, and reliable care.

This year’s virtual gathering, which runs through December 8, convenes more than 6,000 clinicians, leaders, researchers, students, and improvers from around the world. Participants have real-time and on-demand access to 150+ learning sessions led by 300+ speakers, as well as 23 live networking events. Keynote speakers include Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy; Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, Senior Advisor to the White House COVID-19 Response Team and Chair of the Presidential COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force; Heather McGhee, best-selling author of The Sum of Us; Brandon Stanton, creator of Humans of New York; and Dr. Donald Berwick, IHI President Emeritus and Senior Fellow.

To kick off the general conference, IHI President and CEO Dr. Kedar Mate delivered a keynote address in which he implored audience members to actively work to rebuild trust with patients, colleagues, and communities to create safer and more equitable health systems. “Trust is how we build the future – it’s how new ideas travel, it’s the vehicle for change. I feel more certain than ever that it is the key driver to unlock almost every health challenge we face. We must build trust within and throughout the health care system to achieve our mission of improving human health.”

Addressing health equity is a major theme throughout the IHI Forum, with nearly 20 sessions, workshops, and keynotes dedicated to the subject. Specific topics include advancing racial justice and equity through quality and safety; systematizing equity into an improvement culture; and eliminating disparities in COVID-19 vaccinations. Sessions at the IHI Forum are designed to provide actionable insights and resources that participants can learn from and apply in their own settings.

Additional Forum tracks include Improvement Science; Building Improvement Capability; Leadership; Workforce and Patient Safety; Addressing Value, Cost, and Quality; Joy and Well-Being at Work; Person-Centered Care; and Population Health.

Older Adults Reaping Benefits of Age-Friendly Health Systems Movement

The Age-Friendly Health Systems* movement has achieved significant milestones in 2021 as it promotes safe, evidence-based care for older adults. Worldwide, sites of care are adopting the 4Ms framework: Asking What Matters to older adults, Medication, Mentation, and Mobility.

• More than one million older adults have been impacted by the 4Ms framework across inpatient and outpatient care settings since 2018.

• More than 2,400 sites of care globally have been recognized as age-friendly, including hospitals, ambulatory care locations, convenient care clinics, and nursing homes. This is well ahead of the movement’s goal to impact 2,600 care sites by June 2023.

Forum participants can hear first-hand about the learnings and impact of the Age-Friendly Health Systems movement. In Forum Session E03, leaders from Northwell Health will share their experience implementing, standardizing, and measuring the 4Ms framework and improving care across their organization. In addition, Session E04 features a robust panel of age-friendly organizations and leaders, including a representative from CVS Health/MinuteClinic and leading academics, discussing outcomes that matter to people and health systems.

Health systems interested in joining the Age-Friendly Health Systems movement can take part in IHI’s upcoming Action Community starting in March 2022, or take the free IHI Open School course, PFC 203: Providing Age-Friendly Care to Older Adults. Additional free resources include a new Getting Started Guide: How to Have Conversations with Older Adults About “What Matters”.

Better Maternal Outcomes Project Yields Rich Results and Resources

IHI recently concluded an in-depth three-year project, “Better Maternal Outcomes: Redesigning Systems with Black Women,” funded by Merck for Mothers. The project aimed to improve equity, dignity, and safety through co-design with health care delivery organizations, Black people who birth, and community support systems.

Central to the project were four communities (the District of Columbia, Detroit, Atlanta, and New Orleans), which IHI partnered with to co-design and test ideas to improve care for Black people who birth. The rich learnings from these four communities are captured in a series of case studies highlighting the “what” and the “how” of their work.

While each of the communities approached the project in a unique way, eight guiding principles contributed to their success. A new report, Guiding Principles for Improving Black Maternal Health Through Community Collaboration, describes the principles, shares the communities’ experiences, identifies key themes, and provides recommendations for others seeking to engage in this work. The guiding principles are explored in more detail in Forum Session SH06, “Redesigning Systems with Black Women: Doula-Hospital Partnerships and Patient-Centered Simulators.”

For more information about the Forum and remaining keynote and workshop sessions, please visit ihi.org/Forum.

* The Age-Friendly Health Systems movement is an initiative of The John A. Hartford Foundation and IHI in partnership with the American Hospital Association (AHA) and the Catholic Health Association of the United States (CHA).

About the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is an independent not-for-profit organization based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. For 30 years, IHI has used improvement science to advance and sustain better outcomes in health and health systems across the world. IHI brings awareness of safety and quality to millions, catalyzes learning and the systematic improvement of care, develops solutions to previously intractable challenges, and mobilizes health systems, communities, regions, and nations to reduce harm and deaths. IHI collaborates with a growing community to spark bold, inventive ways to improve the health of individuals and populations. IHI generates optimism, harvests fresh ideas, and supports anyone, anywhere who wants to profoundly change health and health care for the better. Learn more at ihi.org.

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