In light of the current COVID-19 outbreak, the 4th International QI Forum will take place virtually on 11-12 June 2020 under the theme ‘Do digital solutions and Artificial Intelligence (AI) improve quality of care and Patient Safety?’. The Forum will be hosted by evaplan GmbH at the University Hospital Heidelberg, together with the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua), the aQua Institute for Applied Quality Improvement – Göttingen and the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health (HIGH) of Heidelberg University.

The QI Forum is an integral part of an accredited course on ‘Digital Transformation and Health’,  which will also be held online from 8th to 12th June 2020.  The course aims to equip the global audience to reflect on the overall impact of digitalization on health and healthcare systems. Participants will learn to identify opportunities and challenges that the digital transformation brings to the healthcare sector, evaluate and assess digital options, identify and prioritize necessary (or unnecessary) digital projects and structure them as well as learn how these projects respond to policy priorities and stakeholder needs.  

Register here for the forum and/or course.

See the full range of accredited short courses on social protection and quality improvement.

The Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health is looking at the contribution and impact of private providers (ie, non- government providers, for- profit businesses) in implementing quality care for maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) in order to determine how to create, nurture and encourage the full engagement of the private sector in this work. The Quality of Care Network is conducting a systematic review to examine the private sector’s role in implementing quality care standards, developing and identifying best practices for delivering quality MNCH care, and strengthening health systems for delivering quality.

Members of the Quality of Care Network recognise that private providers are an important source of healthcare and have a role to play in improving quality of care. In fact, among the 11 Network countries, the private sector addresses an increasing volume of maternal, newborn and child health care needs. Yet, little is known about how to effectively engage and sustain private sector involvement in delivering quality care in low- income and middle- income countries.

The systematic review undertaken by the Quality of Care Network will address the following primary research questions:

• How and to what extent does the provision of quality healthcare by the private sector affect morbidity and mortality among mothers, newborns and children?
• How and to what extent does provision of quality healthcare by the private sector affect utilisation of services by mothers, newborns and children?
• How effective and efficient is the private sector at delivering quality of care?
• Among mothers, newborns and children using healthcare provided by the private sector, what are their experiences of care?

See the protocol for this mixed-methods systematic review, published in the BMJ Open.

Photo: Dr Djiba Diakité works in a private clinic in Siguiri, Guinea.  August 2016. © UNICEF/UN036516/Holt

One third of the way through the SDG era, what will it take to ensure that no woman, child or adolescent is left behind? The BMJ published a collection of articles in which leading researchers from around the world explore the data on health inequalities in an attempt to answer this question. These articles are part of a series proposed by the Countdown to 2030 for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health and the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health.

Photo: Leaving no one behind is an overarching objective of the 2030 Agenda and SDGs.

In a new episode of the Quality Talks podcast, Adrienne Strong, a medical anthropologist and Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Florida shares her observations of a birth companionship programme in Western Tanzania. She explains how the programme, designed to improve both the women’s experience of care and clinical outcomes failed to reduce the disrespect and abuse directed at the patients. In fact, in some cases, the birth companions themselves justified the mistreatment or took part in it, targeting the very women they were meant to support.

Listen to the episode

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The Institute for Healthcare Improvement invites you to share your improvement work at the Africa Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare, taking place 4–6 May 2020 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Submit your poster by 31 January 2020 for the opportunity to share your improvement journey with the hundreds of healthcare professionals expected to attend this conference. Further details regarding the process, style, and timeline for posters are available here.

Those attending the Africa Forum will have the chance to gain “how-to” tips for improving quality and safety in hands-on workshops taught by African and international experts.

Submit your entry

The White Ribbon Alliance is organizing a to examine the findings of its What Women Want Campaign related to reproductive and maternal health supplies. 

Date and Time: Tuesday, January 21, 2020 at 10 am EST; 

Presenter: Kristy Kade, Acting Chief Executive Officer for the White Ribbon Alliance Global Secretariat; 

Register here

The What Women Want campaign originated with a simple, yet radical premise—that women and girls know best. When women and girls are involved in identifying barriers and solutions to healthcare, progress accelerates. In April 2018, WRA launched a year-long effort to ask one million women and girls worldwide about their top request for their own reproductive and maternal healthcare. Nearly 1.2 million women and girls from 114 countries responded, with top responses illustrating that more than anything women want basic infrastructure and basic decency. This includes respectful and dignified care; water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH); medicines and supplies, such as life-saving maternal health medicines and products. 

Read more: www.whatwomenwant.org

Photo: © WhatWomenWant

Most preventable maternal deaths & child deaths occur in settings of conflict, displacement & natural disasters. While the first priority is to restore service provision to save lives, all actors involved in provision of health services must also ensure quality of care. How can we plan for action in unstable settings? The World Health Organization is currently working with partners to address quality of care in fragile, conflict-affected and vulnerable settings. 

See the editorial in the January 2020 WHO Bulletin

Photo: Iftikhar, 29, cradles her son, Hassan, in the neonatal intensive care unit at Al Sabeen Maternal Hospital in Sana’a, Yemen, in October 2019.© UNICEF/UNI224661/AlGhabri

The Latin American Center for Perinatology, Women and Reproductive Health (CLAP/WR)  will hold a webinar to present the course on maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response (MPSSR). 

Date: 23rd January 2020
Time: 10:00 AM-10:30 (EST)
Speakers:  Dr. Andrés De Francisco, Director of Family, Health Promotion and Life Course;  Dr. Bremen de Mucio and Dr. Pablo Durán, CLAP advisors.

To access the webinar, click here

The course on MPDSR is free of charge and is already available on the public health virtual campus in the self-learning mode. The contents will allow participants to acquire knowledge on the definition of maternal and perinatal death, the cycle of continuous improvement applied to auditing, the creation and strengthening of audit committees and the planning of responses to prevent new maternal and perinatal deaths. Participants can regulate their time and timing, which would culminate in an estimated 3 hours.