Tuesday 10 March 2026 | 11:00-12:00
Stream: Change
Session format: World Café

 

Table 1 - Medical imaging stewardship driving transformation: A Canadian province-wide collaboration – the Nova Scotia experience

Nova Scotia tackled diagnostic imaging bottlenecks head-on with a centralized referral model and province-wide stewardship. Nationally, up to 20% of medical imaging is low-value, needlessly extending wait times. Our solution? Standardized pathways and triage protocols that slash low-value scans and cut radiologist triage burden by 80%. This frees up critical capacity and boosts efficiency. In this session, we'll reveal the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) proving our integrated approach's dramatic impact. You'll discover the practical tools—including digital platforms—that enabled this rapid scale and spread. Learn how deep collaboration with referrers, radiologists, and patients forged this sustainable change, offering a clear blueprint for healthcare transformation.

 

Judy Rowe Nova Scotia Health Authority; Canada

 

Table 2 - Quality, outcome-based payment system in public healthcare - how to achieve system breakthrough with coordinated and complex patient care with chronic wounds

Payment for treatment based solely on the completion of a medical procedure does not promote pro-quality behaviors.

Reimbursement based on services rendered fails to establish shared goals among healthcare actors and instead reinforces a siloed approach. In such a model, each healthcare system actor focuses on their own local quality metrics and objectives, while neglecting the true recipient of added value—the patient—whose best interest is to receive the highest quality care at the right time and within reasonable treatment costs.

The guarantee of quality lies in the application and the payer’s ability to monitor objectively defined indicators of therapeutic success.

Example of services provided for chronic wounds has demonstrated—within just 1.5 years—that outcome-based payments are in the best interest of all stakeholders within the public healthcare system, including the patients themselves. Additionally a permanent coordination has been established between primary healthcare and the hospital care system.

 

Marcin Ludyga Dr Sakiel’s Center for Burn Treatment; Poland

 

Table 3 - Driving change with purpose: methodologies for transformative simulation

Simulation can drive more than skills - it can drive systems and cultural change. This interactive session introduces the Transformative Simulation (TfS) framework, with a focus on the underlying theories that guide each of its seven Simulation-Based Implements (SBIs). We will explore how methodologies drawn from human factors, systems thinking, implementation science, co-production, and behavioural design contribute to intentional, efficient, and impactful simulation design. Particular emphasis will be given to human factors as a cross-cutting enabler, supporting everything from scenario design and data collection to debriefing and cultural diagnostics. Whether you’re designing simulations for safety, improvement, or innovation, this session will equip you with theory-informed strategies that connect simulation more directly to people, outcomes and organisational priorities. Delegates will leave with a stronger foundation for designing, evaluating, and advocating for simulation as a purposeful tool for change.

 

Paul Bowie NHS Education for Scotland; Scotland

 

Table 4 - Subtractive change - being safer by doing less

Humans have a tendency to solve problems by making additive changes. This is no different in quality and safety improvement where checks, rules, protocols, risk assessments are common solutions to safety problems. This causes clutter - defined by Drew Rae (2018) as the accumulation and persistence of 'safety' work that does not contribute to operational safety.

We are an international group of applied researchers who have been working with healthcare staff, managers and patients to understand safety clutter and what function it serves and to develop and evaluate strategies and tools to support the removal of clutter. In this session we will share with the audience our current understanding of this field and discuss practical examples of how to reduce clutter in healthcare. We will learn with the audience about the origins of clutter and how they, as leaders in the field can prevent and de-implement low-value safety practices.

 

Rebecca Lawton NIHR Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Research Collaboration (YHPSRC); UK 

 

Table 5 - Opla - turning waiting time into starting time

Long waiting times for parenting support can lead to escalating care needs and missed opportunities for early intervention. In response, in 2018 De Schommel vzw launched “Project Speedboat” to explore innovative solutions. This led to the creation of Opla, a user-friendly online platform offering immediate, accessible self-help to families from the moment they register. Opla empowers parents to take action during the waiting period, maintaining motivation and preventing care delays. It also enhances the quality of later in-person guidance by collecting valuable insights and context in advance. With multilingual support and inclusive design, Opla ensures accessibility for all families. This session will share the journey from concept to implementation, including co-creation with families and professionals, and present evaluation results showing improved engagement, trust, and care outcomes. Delegates will gain insights into how Opla can transform waiting time into meaningful starting time, improving continuity, efficiency, and family empowerment in care pathways.

 

 

Anne de Groof De Schommel vzw; Belgium

 

Table 6 - Ask Us! Participatory quality improvement by clients living with dementia, family members and professionals together

The Ask Us! method is a participatory quality improvement program in supported independent living for people with dementia or serious mental illness. Ask Us! is a process of several group conversations in which clients, family members and professionals share experiences, identify themes for improvement and co-design these together. Filmed theatrical monologues trigger these group-conversations. This session provides insight into participatory quality improvement with vulnerable populations; the potential benefits of organizing quality improvement through a participatory process employing narrative inquiry, art-mediated critical reflection, deliberation and co-design and lessons learned from implementing such quality improvement processes.

 

Roel van der Heijde Patient Centered Care Association; Netherlands

Table 7 - Design as a method: practical tools for human-centred healthcare improvement and how generative AI can help

Design is a powerful yet underused method for solving complex healthcare challenges. In this interactive workshop, participants will learn and apply core methods of human-centred design, including empathy-building, journey mapping, ideation, and prototyping, to healthcare challenges. Participants will also discover how generative AI can strengthen design work by testing ideas quickly, refining language for clarity and accessibility, translating materials to reach diverse communities, and creating visual storyboards, images, and prototypes that make ideas tangible. Together, these approaches help build solutions that are more equitable, inclusive, and effective. Through guided, hands-on activities and real examples from emergency department improvement projects, participants will explore how design injects creativity and humanity into quality improvement (QI) work, moving healthcare forward with intention and innovation. Attendees will leave equipped with practical tools and inspiration to frame persistent problems differently, engage patients and families more deeply, and bring their ideas to life in ways that matter.

Samuel Vaillancourt Unity Health Toronto; Canada

 

Table 8 - From Scotland’s successful Patient Safety Programme: breaking new ground by uniting simulation and improvement science for greater impact

In NHS Lothian, we faced the same challenge: two passionate communities, both focused on improving care but speaking different professional dialects, using different tools, and missing opportunities to learn from one another. Simulation was seen primarily as education and quality improvement as methodology. Both were making progress, but separately.

The result? Slower improvement, siloed innovation, and missed chances to test, learn, and embed better ways of working.

In this session, you’ll hear how we changed that, and how you can too! We’ll share how we brought these two “tribes” together through a shared programme centred on common purpose, shared language, and co-designed activity.

You’ll leave with practical insights, tested ideas, and real-world examples of how this collaborative approach is improving care and how it might apply in your own setting.

 

Simon Edgar NHS Lothian; Scotland

 

Table 9 - From fragility to fortitude: embedding team resilience to sustain change in high-stress healthcare environments

In high-stress healthcare environments, sustaining change requires more than strategy, it demands resilience. This session explores how team-level resilience can drive long-term improvements in care quality and safety. Delegates will learn from a multi-year initiative that introduced the R3 Teams framework (Resilient, Reflective, Responsive) across emergency, oncology, and ICU settings in a large teaching hospital. The approach integrated leadership training, psychological safety practices, and real-time learning, leading to measurable reductions in burnout and improved protocol adherence. With data from over 1,200 staff, the session offers practical tools and a replicable model for building resilient teams capable of sustaining change through disruption. Delegates interested in workforce wellbeing, clinical transformation, and patient safety will gain insights they can immediately apply in their settings. This session is essential for anyone leading or supporting change in complex healthcare systems.

 

Uchenna Ugwu University of Nigeria Nsukka; Nigeria

 

 

Table 10 - Health and democracy integrative approach: new theory in health

In this session, I’ll unveil a ground-breaking One Health–Democracy framework that connects human, animal and ecosystem well-being with transparent, accountable governance.

 

You’ll discover:

• How inclusive democratic institutions drive cross-sector collaboration to anticipate and manage pandemics, environmental crises and social unrest.
• Comparative insights from Indonesia, Europe and North America that expose institutional levers for policy coherence and greater public trust.
• Quantitative evidence linking democratic performance scores to stronger health outcomes
  Practical, actionable recommendations for integrating deliberative decision-making with transdisciplinary health strategies.

Delegates will leave equipped with a clear roadmap for designing resilient governance models—bridging traditional silos to bolster health security and environmental stewardship in times of uncertainty. Whether you lead policy, research or frontline care, this talk offers fresh theory and real-world tools to transform your organization’s response to complex global challenges.

 

Warjio Warjio Universitas Sumatera Utara; Indonesia

 

Table 11 - Empowering primary care In North East London: EQUIP’s quality improvement at scale model

EQUIP (Enabling Quality Improvement in Practice) is a structured, locally-led, system-enabled Quality Improvement programme supporting primary care transformation across North East London since 2016. Built on the principles of psychology of change, improvement science, and Total Quality Management frameworks, this session will explore how EQUIP develops local improvement infrastructure through coaching, training, data analytics, and learning systems.

Attendees will learn how EQUIP recruits and supports QI coaches, builds communities of practice, and facilitates real-time improvement across complex systems. With proven results—such as reduced missed appointments, cost savings, and improved staff and patient experience—EQUIP offers a sustainable approach to enabling change from within. Whether you're building a new QI strategy or enhancing an existing one, this session will provide a tested framework and actionable insights to guide transformation in your own setting.

 

Virginia Patania North East London ICS; UK