Professional formation of physicians focused on improving care

Abstract

There is evidence that many patients do not receive optimum care despite efforts to improve health care quality. Society expects physicians to improve care for their patients, and to lead and function as members of quality improvement (QI) teams. A range of educational approaches exist to prepare physicians for this important role. Education in QI across the educational continuum is supported by the requirements of educational accrediting organizations and the expectation of specialty certification board. These regulatory bodies expect that physicians develop these skills during training, and that physicians in practice maintain QI competence, and assess and improve their patients’ care. At the same time, no coordinated curriculum for teaching QI across the continuum of medical education exists to date. An effective approach to QI education encompasses both didactics and immersive experiences that enable learners to apply their developing competence to real-world problems. Given the importance of team-based approaches in the care of complex patients, new multidisciplinary QI approaches, informed by research on what makes care effective, will contribute to care that improves the patient experience. These will be supported by advances in medical training and assessment, healthy populations, and will lead to improved quality and lower per capita cost of health care to benefit patients and society.