CEO Update
Having recently taken up the exciting position as CEO of ISQua, it is my pleasure to greet all of the organisation's members, partners, and friends. ISQua's mission is "To inspire and drive improvement in health, and the safety and quality of health care worldwide". How we intend to do this can be summarised in three words: Knowledge – Network – Voice.
During my first month of tenure, I have spent most of the time familiarising myself with the various activities in ISQua, and I am very impressed by the enthusiasm, creativity, and competency I have encountered.
The networks of ISQua, Members, Fellows, Experts, Academy and Partners, are the greatest asset of ISQua. Herein rest energy, passion and knowledge, and through the networks, knowledge achieves a voice and is made accessible to those who need it. Noticeable, in the networks, flow is not one-way; all can both contribute and benefit. It is also significant that patients and families are now seen as sources of knowledge, members of networks, and persons with a voice that has something important to say.
I have marked around 350 assignments written by participants in the Fellowship Programme. It has been a pleasure to see how the students in this programme, most of whom come from low and lower middle-income countries, have engaged themselves in the learning journeys offered. The idea behind the programme is not just to reproduce a curriculum, but also to reflect on it, based on own experience and practice, thus enabling the translation of knowledge to improvement. From the assignments I have read, it is clear to see that this is indeed happening. I am confident that the organisations that have encouraged and supported staff to join the Fellowship Programme will find that they receive a good return on their investment.
The ISQua conference has been an annual reference point for me since I first attended the 2005 conference in Vancouver. It was a significant loss that the conference was unable to be held in 2020. During the past year, we have learned how much we can do virtually. I am sure that the virtual ISQua conference, from 8-11 July, will offer all participants new knowledge and insights and will stimulate thinking and actions. It is also worth considering that virtual participation is affordable for individuals who might not attend a physical event, and we will find ways to preserve the best of both worlds. Nevertheless, I also sincerely hope that we will be able to meet in real life for the next conference in Brisbane in October 2022.
Accreditation has been at the heart of ISQua since the very beginning. The International Accreditation Programme (IAP) attracts new clients every year. Yet this is not the time to rest on our laurels. The world changes, and so must accreditation. Some ideas have been presented in a recent paper in the International Journey for Quality in Health Care (IJQHC) and in a webinar that will soon be uploaded as a resource for the Fellowship Programme. The title of both the paper and webinar is "Accreditation in 2030" - https://academic.oup.com/intqhc/article-abstract/33/1/mzaa156/6044241. ISQua EEA and the Accreditation Council will find ways to meet the challenges ahead of us.
The International Journal for Quality in Health Care is another ISQua flagship that has been along for a long time. This year it will be joined by a new open-access journal, IJQHC Communications (IJCOMS) https://academic.oup.com/ijcoms. This new journal publishes papers in all disciplines related to the quality and safety of health care, including health services research, health care evaluation, technology assessment, health economics, utilisation review, cost containment, and nursing care research, as well as clinical research, methodologic approaches, translational research, and implementation research projects related to the quality of care. In addition to receiving content cascaded from the parent journal, IJQHC Communications will also publish de novo content of its own. The journal is truly interdisciplinary and will include contributions from representatives of all health professions. Members of the ISQua Academy have provided papers for the first issue, and all are encouraged to submit papers now.
As is evident from all of these lines of activity, ISQua can and will play an important role in what is shaping up to be a decade of transformation across the 2020s. The reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated that healthcare can move quickly in response to a crisis. So this is a pivotal moment to have stepped in as CEO of ISQua. I hope to help ISQua make a tangible difference as a catalyst for the challenges to come.
Dr Carsten Engel
ISQua CEO