Quality improvement methods were first deployed in healthcare in e hospital settings. However, over the past decade particularly, there has been increasing focus on the application of these methods in improving population and public health. In this course, you will apply a combination of both approaches to population health improvement. You will also learn how to study and evaluate large improvement initiatives to capture learning effectively.
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Learning Objectives:
- Apply quality improvement methods in combination with population health frameworks to design a population health improvement initiative
- Understand how the use of geographic information systems contributes to quality improvement
- Critique different study designs for studying quality improvement initiatives
Course 3 of 3 in the Quality Improvement in Healthcare Specialization.
Syllabus
WEEK 1
Quality Improvement and Population Health – part I
In this module you will contrast quality improvement methods with population health frameworks. You will also learn about the use of geographic information systems in quality improvement, along with the importance of good data visualisation. You will learn how to use funnel plots to understand variation in measures across organisations, units or geographies.
WEEK 2
Quality Improvement and Population Health – part II
In this module you will study a well-known example of failings in a healthcare system, and the subsequent investigations and reports into what happened, thinking about parallels in population health. You will study published examples of quality improvement methods applied to population and public health improvement, reflecting on how lessons learnt in quality and safety might be applied in this context.
WEEK 3
Study Designs for Quality Improvement at Scale
In this module you will be given an overview of study designs for studying QI initiatives, including large national initiatives, with a focus on designs that optimise learning for future improvement. You will also reflect on the priorities and future directions for research in QI.
WEEK 4
Capstone project: Designing a Population Health Quality Improvement Initiative
In this module, you will work on the capstone project of the specialisation. You will bring together what you have learnt across the three courses; from quality improvement methods, through evaluation designs for improvement initiatives, to improving population health. You will plan your own improvement initiative, tackling an important population health issue, and select methods suited to the problem.
