Conference Soapboxing...

Integrating quality improvement with Graduate Medical Education: Lessons Learned from the AIAMC National Initiatives. Blanchard RD, Pierce-Boggs K, Visintainer PF, Hinchey KT. Am J Med Quality. 2015; Jan:1-6. 

Available on request from the Baystate Health Sciences Library or from PubMed at your institution.

This week is the 2015 ACGME Annual Educational Conference in beautiful, sunny San Diego, CA. Well, I live in Massachusetts, so I'm not sure if San Diego is sunny and beautiful right now, but I'm pretty sure it's not -8 degrees FOR A HIGH, like it is here.

But I digress.

The ACGME Conference is about more than conference coffee and "armchair hypothesizing;" it's about reflecting on our role in graduate medical education - our one little corner of the room - and how we might commit to improvement. Isn't it?!

In that spirit, I present to you this shameless self-promotion post - a look at the brilliant work of Blanchard (and her brilliant colleagues) - who asked about the brilliant work of AIAMC National Initiative participants to create this article - a reflection on how we might best integrate quality improvement (QI) with graduate medical education (GME).

Here's why that's important [Grabs mic, Hops up on soapbox]:

Medical education is a unique opportunity to not only improve the patient care for tomorrow; what these AIAMC participants will tell you is that it's a pathway towards improving our patient care today. Can we ask every clinician at our institutions to improve the quality of their care? Sure. Can we hold them accountable? Yes,... they make big sticks...

But these AIAMC participants harnessed the power of GME to integrate QI into more than one project. They found way into changing organizational culture - and by doing so - supporting consistent attention to the most important fibers in the fabric of our patient care.

[Drops mic, Hops off soapbox]

Bottom Line: 

So, grab yourself that conference coffee, and that free hotel pen. Read this article, and use it as a guide to commit to one change - 1 change! - that will help you align GME with quality improvement at your institution. And let us know how it goes..