About the Forum

The Forum aims to support and energise the movement for health and healthcare improvement

Who we are
The International Forum is jointly organised by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. The ambition of both organisations is to improve health care and outcomes for patients and communities. The International Forum is sustained by an international network of quality improvement organisations and leaders.

IHI is an independent not-for-profit organisation helping to lead the improvement of health care throughout the world. Founded in 1991 and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, IHI works to accelerate improvement by building the will for change, cultivating promising concepts for improving patient care and turning those ideas into action.

The BMJ Publishing Group Ltd is a global medical publishing organisation and a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Medical Association, and has been at the forefront of the campaign to improve the quality and safety of care. Our vision is to be the world’s leading and most trusted provider of information and services that will make a real difference in clinical practice and improve outcomes for patients. We aim to lead the debate on healthcare and deliver innovative, useful evidence-based knowledge, best practice and learning to doctors, other health professionals, researchers and patients when and where they need it.

Both organisations enjoy not-for-profit status. In order to fulfil our missions we need to be self sustaining and any surpluses made are reinvested in health care and the health care professions.

Our Misson
The Forum has as its mission to support the movement for health care improvement. It aims to improve outcomes for patients and communities, provide practical ideas that can be implemented in the workplace, promote research into quality and safety improvement, foster effective innovation, and connect health care leaders and practitioners worldwide.

The main way that it meets these aims is through the annual Forum, a three day meeting that brings together a very international group of people (from chief executives and government officials to health care managers and clinicians) who share a concern and a passion for improving quality and safety in healthcare. This year’s Forum in Paris, for example, brought together over 2000 people from over 60 countries to take part in sessions that ranged from the basic disciplines of quality improvement to the latest thinking in how to improve quality and safety.

Our Vision
Improve outcomes for patients and communities

• Provide practical ideas that can be implemented in the workplace

• Build coalitions to inspire understanding between health care organisations

• Promote research into quality and safety improvement

• Foster effective innovation

• Gather the evidence needed to support local improvement

• Connect health care leaders and practitioners worldwide

• Translate concern about the quality and safety of care into effective action