IDEAS to Enhance Ontario’s Health System Performance

The Improving and Driving Excellence Across Sectors (IDEAS) program is a province-wide initiative developed in partnership with Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME,) Health Quality Ontario (HQO), Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) and the six Ontario universities. Offering programs for the novice and advanced healthcare practitioner, IDEAS is an accredited program designed for healthcare professionals looking to expand their knowledge of quality improvement concepts.

In the past two years, Continuing Professional Development at the University of Toronto has successfully led 10 cohorts of health professionals through the introductory program, with 445 participants completing the program led by expert local faculty. In September 2016 the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada awarded the IDEAS Introductory – 2 Day program the Royal College-Accredited Provider Innovation Award. The award recognizes the CPD Collaborative of the six Ontario medical schools for their innovative development and implementation of educational processes, resources and tools to further build the leadership and quality improvement skills in our health professionals.

With the goal of a high-performing health care system that provides patients with better quality care in a more sustainable way, IDEAS and the CPD collaborative are continuously looking forward to further develop and advance the introductory program. This fall the IDEAS partnership and CPD collaborative will revise the introductory program, moving to an innovative e-Learning format, before participating in an interactive one-day, in-person workshop, led by expert faculty.

The revised, and newly named, Foundations of Quality Improvement program will begin in January 2017 and is ideal for individuals who are interested in engaging in improvement work, but who might consider themselves novices to quality improvement or in need of a refresher course on quality.