IHI International Forum

Pallavi Yadav, MHA candidate 2015, was the proud recipient of Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Open School and British Medical Journal scholarship to attend the 2015 International Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare, London. The 20th annual Forum connected over 3,000 healthcare leaders and practitioners worldwide to share research on and discuss new models for quality improvement and patient safety. Pallavi represented the University of Iowa (UI) as a board member of Students for Inter-professional Education (SIPE), and the UI Chapter Leader of the IHI Open School. Pallavi was also awarded the Global Health Studies Travel Grant and the Inter-Professional Education Steering Committee Award for advancement of Inter-professional education at UI.

In her words:

The International forum in London was a unique experience and a great opportunity to learn about international developments in the field of Quality Improvement (QI) from healthcare practitioners. The long history of Inter-Professional Education (IPE) in the UK, provided opportunities to meet professionals with significant experience in IPE, share Iowa stories and lessons learnt, and network for advancement of IPE at The University of Iowa.

The week of April 20, 2015 was packed with educational lectures, workshops, fun QI activities, and networking sessions. Every session was very informative, but my favorites were:1)  “Setting up an organizational wide quality improvement program”- where various healthcare professionals from NHS  came together to talk about the success of their QI projects through  interprofessional collaboration; 2) “Consider culture and deliberate innovation”- a power-packed session that inspired healthcare leaders to harness innovation for meaningful outcomes in healthcare; and 3) Dr. Donald Berwick’s keynote lecture- that was as informational as it was inspiring. All these sessions had an underling theme: to be able to change the current situation, we must force ourselves to think differently. I also enjoyed talking to various healthcare professionals about QI developments in their respective countries. Learning about the national initiatives and industry focus on patient safety and inter-professional collaboration in Singapore was particularly inspiring. In one of the break-out discussion sessions, the person on my right was from Sweden, the person on my left was from the Netherlands, and the person sitting across me was from UK.  We brainstormed on the QI task at hand and also took the time to exchange work stories, opportunities, and challenges of our respective healthcare organizations. It was truly an enriching experience which I could not have had anywhere else.

A typical day at the forum was spent listening to compelling lectures and attending truly diverse

networking assemblies with brief moments of sprinting from one session to another in London’s colossal ExCel exhibition center. It was an intense yet extremely exciting week, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in QI and patient safety. (My advice is to steer clear of heels in any shape and form.) Despite the busy week, I managed to take some time at the end of each day to visit sites like the Tower Bridge, Piccadilly Circus, and Trafalgar Square.

I sincerely thank the IPE Steering Committee for their support and commitment towards furthering IPE education at the U of I. I also want to thank the Department of Operations Excellence at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for letting me be a part of QI projects, the faculty of the Department of Health Management and Policy in the UI College of Public Health, and UI International Students Services for their support and encouragement.