Teaching Quality Improvement

As issues of patient safety and quality assurance have come to the forefront of national discussions regarding medical care in the past two decades, there has been a simultaneous recognition that these topics must be addressed in medical education. The importance of developing expertise in teaching quality improvement (QI) is twofold: trainees are (1) the “front-line” providers in many healthcare institutions where their awareness and positive involvement in QI is crucial to the success of robust quality initiatives, and (2) the future practitioners who will shape the next generation of quality work and face issues of quality and safety in daily practice.