Monday 9 March 2026 | 13:30-16:30
Stream: Safety
Session format: Workshop

Part 1 - Improving improvement through better design

This session will challenge the myths that quality improvement is too slow, that we can’t ever form views on causal inference, and that quality improvement has to be done one PDSA at a time…!
There is a spectrum of designs that can be utilised for quality improvement, and yet we remain wedded to the simple naturalistic sequence of testing one thing after another. This session will introduce you to the range of ways in which we can test, which can help us build a stronger degree of belief in the causal relationship between what we test and the results we see. We will show how you can use control groups, randomisation, and more sophisticated designs such as factorial experiments or stepped-wedge.We will describe the range of designs, with practical examples, and ask you to consider the pros and cons of trying to adopt these in the real world. Be prepared to come away with your mind blown about the range of ways in which you can speed up learning and strengthen your causal theories!

After this session, participants will be able to:

• Establish the range of different designs that are possible to test interventions as part of quality improvement work.
• Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the different design choices.
• Consider how we might incorporate these options into the way that we design quality improvement work in the future.
  

Perle Darsø; The Capital Region of Denmark; Denmark 
Amar Shah NHS England; UK
Jonathan Burlison St Jude Children's Research Hospital; USA

Part 2 - Better design and better evaluation for greater impact: practical tools and methods to design and evaluate effective quality improvement initiatives

Many quality improvement (QI) initiatives fall short not due to a lack of effort, but due to a lack of rigorous designs or a reliable mechanism for evaluating, learning from and adapting the initiatives. This interactive session introduces a practical approach that guides improvement teams through six essential components of high-quality QI design—system understanding, clear aims, content theory, measurement, evaluation and learning planning, execution theory, and dissemination strategy. We'll also explore a novel evaluation tool that integrates improvement and implementation science, enabling teams to systematically evaluate their QI initiatives. Participants will engage in real-time application of the six core components and evaluation tool and leave with ready-to-use resources. Whether you're designing new QI initiatives or strengthening existing ones, this session will equip you with the tools and insights needed to increase your initiative’s effectiveness and impact.

After this session, participants will be able to:

• Apply a six core component approach to design improvement initiatives.
• Use a sequential, practical approach that incorporates implementation and improvement science tools to evaluate improvement initiatives.
• Identify and address common design and evaluation pitfalls in QI projects.

Jafet Arrieta Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), USA
Rebecca Steinfield Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), USA

Part 3: Using innovation as an improvement engine: approaches to identify, design and scale breakthrough ideas

Improvement practitioners have no shortage of sources of new ideas — including the implementation science literature, their own improvement work, their peers, and increasingly other sources like social media. At the same time, finding new solutions to intractable problems that impede improving health and care remains challenging. For organizations to maintain a pipeline of useful, effective, spreadable, and scalable ideas, they need clear internal processes and specialized support.

This session will highlight emerging thinking from the innovation system at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement to advance promising new approaches to improving health and care.

After this session, participants will be able to:

• Apply innovation approaches in their own organization.
• Distinguish innovation processes that reliably support new and useful ideas from those that may be less helpful.
• Demonstrate and begin applying co-design thinking to innovation.
  

Jeffrey Rakover Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), USA
Keziah Imbeah  Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), USA