Wednesday 21 May 2025 | 13:30-16:30

Format: Half-day workshop

Stream: Science

Content filters: n/a

PART ONE: What can we learn from implementation science? A better approach to evaluation of improvement

Improvement Science practitioners have struggled to effectively evaluate their improvement projects and initiatives, with consequent difficulty in achieving impact, scaling their work and in publishing their work in high impact Journals. Can we offer a more rigorous approach to understanding results, learning from context, and describing a cause and effect relationship between what we do and what we see? Can we incorporate Implementation Science thinking and frameworks, and better study designs to improve our improvement designs and evaluation? How to we avoid or mitigate bias in our designs? This session will describe and illustrate IHI’s Framework for Improvement Research and Evaluation (FIRE) and provide practical tools to help improvers use the approach in their own work.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Identify the underlying weaknesses of current improvement designs and evaluation frameworks. and the consequences for scale-up and dissemination of QI work


• Incorporate Core Components of Improvement Design and Core Implementation Science Evaluation Frameworks into an evaluation design for improvement initiatives


• Understand the role and mitigation of bias in improvement designs and how to use study designs that establish a causal path for QI theory

Jafet Arrieta Institute for Healthcare Improvement; USA

Pierre Barker Institute for Healthcare Improvement; USA

 

PART TWO: Improvement and implementation science: potato/potahto or apples and oranges?

Improvement and Implementation Science are both in the service of improving the quality and effectiveness of healthcare. Each acknowledges gaps between desired state and current state while using analytical approaches to develop impactful solutions. And both fields also recognize the importance of psychology as a key aspect in how changes in practice are adopted by individuals, teams, and organizations. There are also key differentiating factors across the two fields. Namely, implementation science focuses primarily on spreading well-researched evidence-based practices, while improvement science often approaches a challenge without an initial solution identified.

Our presentation addresses calls within both fields to mutually accelerate progress by learning from each other’s conceptual frameworks and methods. For example, implementation science is rooted in developing adoption approaches that generalize across many settings. How can delegates, namely practitioners of improvement science, adapt or adopt these techniques to aid in the successful spread of change ideas at scale?

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Explain the core principles and fundamental methodologies of implementation science


• Recognise key differences across improvement and implementation science in their approaches to addressing healthcare challenges


• Realise the potential value of one or more Implementation Science approaches that can be adapted to improvement initiatives

Amar Shah East London NHS Foundation Trust; England

Jonathan Burlison St Jude Children’s Research Hospital; USA

 

PART THREE: Are we connected? From noise to clarity: improving telephone triage in Dutch urgent care based on scientific evidence

Join us for an insightful journey through our process of enhancing the computerized decision support system for telephone triage in Dutch out-of-hours primary urgent care and the national ambulance service (1-1-2). We began by evaluating the safety and efficacy of the existing system for chest discomfort and shortness of breath, then formulated targeted improvements and translated the evidence into practical use in urgent care. Preliminary data on our implementation outcomes will be shared if available.

Balancing safety and efficiency in telephone triage is challenging, and evidence-based improvement is at least equally demanding. Join us to gain insights and practical knowledge on enhancing the quality of urgent care triage systems. Through concise examples, we will demonstrate how co-creation and collaboration with stakeholders and end-users helped us overcome implementation challenges.

Engage actively with other researchers to explore and discuss the importance of connecting with the field when implementing research findings in daily practice.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Describe the (possible) steps to achieve quality improvement in urgent care in co-creation with relevant stakeholders


• Identify several barriers and facilitators for implementing evidence-based improvements to urgent primary care


• Know which determinants/predictors are important for safe and efficient telephone triage within two domains with potentially underlying life-threatening conditions (chest discomfort and shortness of breath)

Mathé Delissen UMC Utrecht; Netherlands

Michelle Spek UMC Utrecht; Netherlands

 

PART FOUR: What can healthcare improvement learn from social science?

Healthcare improvement has its origins in clinical science and operational principles from the manufacturing sector. There is an appreciation that social science can play an increasing role in the delivery of improvement outcomes.

In this session, Hahrie Han will explore some key concepts from social science research and associated practice that can enhance improvement practice and help us build powerful socio-technical approaches to change. These include:

• Organisational and system change: Social sciences emphasise the importance of cultural and social factors in the practice of change. This perspective can help healthcare systems implement changes more effectively by considering the social and cultural contexts within which they operate.


• Community Engagement: Social sciences highlight the importance of community engagement and grassroots movements. By involving communities in healthcare improvement efforts, healthcare leaders can support collective action and ensure that changes are more sustainable and better aligned with the needs of the population


• Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Social sciences encourage interdisciplinary collaboration, which can lead to more holistic approaches to healthcare improvement. By integrating perspectives from sociology, psychology, anthropology, politics, and other fields, healthcare can address complex issues more effectively.

By leveraging these insights, healthcare improvement efforts can become more effective, sustainable, and aligned with the needs of people who use services and communities.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Appreciate key social science concepts relevant to healthcare improvement


• Identify methods for combining principles from social science with existing improvement methods


• Develop action plans for implementing social science based practices in their own context

Professor Nicola Burgess Professor of Operations Management, University of York; England