Quality Improvement Web Resources

American Board of Internal Medicine—Maintenance of Certification—Self-Evaluation of Practice Performance—All ABIM diplomates who are maintaining certification are expected complete 20 points of self-evaluation of practice performance.

American Board of Internal Medicine—Online Services—Practice Improvement Module Demonstrations—Offers sample modules for data collection and developing improvement plans. Online tutorials are available for each sample module.

American Board of Internal Medicine—Practice Improvement Module—Hospital Based Patient Care—Self-evaluation tool designed to provide an opportunity to learn how to improve quality for patients with acute myocardial infarction, community-acquired pneumonia, or congestive heart failure.

Medscape from WebMD—Offers physicians, clinicians, and medical professionals free Continuing Medical Education (CME), medical news, and full-text journal articles. A one-time, free registration is required.

American Board of Internal Medicine—Homepage for the U.S. board that sets the standards and certifies the knowledge, skills and attitudes of physicians who practice Internal Medicine and its subspecialties.

American Board of Medical Specialties—A not-for-profit organization that assists 24 approved medical specialty boards in the development and use of standards in the ongoing evaluation and certification of physicians.

Institute for Healthcare Improvement—57-minute presentation walking through the Chronic Care Model as presented by Dr. Ed Wagner, Director of the Improving Chronic Illness Care national program.

Research Channel—Non-profit media and technology organization that connects a global audience with research and academic institutions so they can share the work of their researchers with the public.

Improving Chronic Illness Care—Organization dedicated to the idea that United States healthcare can do better in helping the over 133 million Americans with chronic illnesses lead better lives.

Oak Ridge Associated Universities—Non-profit consortium of 98 doctoral-granting academic institutions that strive to create collaborative partnerships involving academe, government, and industry. Focus on environmental cleanup, weapons of mass destruction preparedness and response, and science education.

Institute of Medicine of the National Academies—The Institute and the National Academies use volunteer scientists to obtain authoritative, objective, and scientifically balanced answers to difficult questions of national importance. Reports are drafted to provide policy-makers with objective, scientifically sound information.

Institute of Medicine of the National Academies—Print friendly version of information about the Institute’s mission and work.

Institute of Medicine of the National Academies—Information about the Institute’s mission and work.

Institute of Medicine of the National Academies—Frequently Asked Questions about the IOM, its funding, committees, reports, and meetings.

Institute of Medicine—Board on Health Care Services—Identifying and Preventing Medication Errors—Preventing Medication Errors: Quality Chasm Series—Institute of Medicine report that puts forward a national agenda for reducing medication errors based on estimates of the incidence and cost of such errors and evidence on the efficacy of various prevention strategies.

Institute of Medicine—Outline of the IOM’s Quality Initiative, an ongoing effort focused on assessing and improving the nation’s quality of care.

Institute of Medicine—Links to others working to create a more patient responsive 21st century health system. This collection of efforts focus reform at three, overlapping levels of the system—environmental, health care organization, and interface between patients and clinicians.

Institute of Medicine—Index and links to all reports published by the IOM since 1988. Also offers option to download list of all publications by the IOM since 1970.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation—Newsroom—Features—Invitation of research proposals that offer solutions towards improving the quality of U.S. health care.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation—Outline of its work and specific program areas in improving the quality of health care available to all Americans, including those with chronic illnesses

United State Department of Veteran’s Affairs—Office of Academic Affiliations—Information about the VA National Quality Scholars Fellowship Program

Dartmouth University—Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences (CECS)—Information about the VA National Quality Scholars Fellowship Program.

Dartmouth University—Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences (CECS)—Outcomes Research and Health Policy—Sparked by early studies on geographic varations in the delivery of health care, this section of the CECS studies a number of different areas so as to better question the common wisdom underlying much of the U.S. health care system. Specific research initiatives are outlined.

Pfizer Clear Health Communication Literacy—Help Your Patients Succeed: Tips for Improving Communication With Your Patients—Instructs medical providers with the “teach back” method.

Pfizer Clear Health Communication Literacy—The Newest Vital Sign: A New Health Literacy Assessment Tool for Health Care Providers—Bilingual (English/Spanish) screening tool that identifies patients at risk for low health literacy

Education for Quality Improvement in Pediatric Practice—Online interactive educational activities designed to help you examine your practice and provide practical and effective tools easily implemented in the office setting.