By Zlata Ožvačić (Croatia)
EQuiP Working Group Leader on Teaching Quality
Quality Improvement (QI) includes the combined and continuous efforts of healtcare professionals, patients and their families, researchers, payers, planners and educators to make changes that will lead to better patient outcome, system performance and professional development.
QI needs to be taught at all levels of medical education and in all aspects of medical care. In family medicine, qualty of healthcare extends to all aspects of family doctors' work:
The Uducational Agenda developed by the European Academy of Teachers in General Practice/Family Medicine (EURACT) covers most of these aspects. However, it is not clear if this agenda includes techniques and competencies of QI. Namely, QI as a separate topic is not specifically mentioned or incorporated in the agenda.
This is in constrast with the document set out in the USA by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) in 1999 involving 'practice-based learning and improvement' as the centre of six doctors' core competencies.
The teaching QI working group was formed in 2008 as part of EQuiP. One of the aims of this group was to provide a comprehensive overview of how and at which levels QI is actually taught in European countries.
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