London’s med school opens a centre for quality

LONDON, Ont. – Driven by the goal of advancing patient care through research in quality improvement and patient safety, the Department of Medicine at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry has established the Centre for Quality, Innovation and Safety (CQuInS).

The CQuInS is a collaborative research community in the field of quality improvement, innovation and patient safety. It is designed to empower and support the School’s healthcare faculty as they continually improve the standards and quality of the patient-focused care they provide.

“The creation of C-QuInS is the culmination of goals in Department of Medicine’s Strategic Plan of 2015. The Plan’s vision was to set the standard in the quality of care provided by the Department faculty to our patients and community through research and education, in conjunction with the University, our partner hospitals and other stakeholders,” said Dr. James Calvin (pictured), professor of medicine and chair/chief of the Department of Medicine.

“C-QuInS provides the necessary environment where faculty can share ideas and resources to fulfil the Plan’s vision to provide the best possible care to our patients and to patients beyond our local community through our ability to spread innovation.”

Through development opportunities and research programs, the CQuInS seeks to develop junior researchers in the field. The Centre will foster a community that creates a better understanding of how to improve healthcare through the continuous pursuit of evidence-based excellence.

Accessible and high-quality education in quality improvement, safety and best practices will also be provided to clinicians through the CQuInS.

“CQuInS comes at an opportune time as healthcare delivery has been facing major disruption as a result of the COVID 19 pandemic, but as a consequence, we have also seen great innovation and change, said Dr. Louise Moist, one of the Centre’s leaders.

“It will be instrumental in helping to understand the quality of these changes to ensure patients receive excellent care while addressing important patient outcomes and safety. It will also facilitate skill development in quality improvement, integrating the voice of physicians’ administrators, allied health providers, patients and care providers.”

The CQuInS opens under the leadership of three renowned clinicians and scientists. Dr. James Calvin will serve as interim director, Dr. Louise Moist as associate director and Dr. Alan Gob as clinical lead.

Dr. Calvin has a long history of healthcare research, improvement and process redesign. While leading a cardiology service in the United States, Dr. Calvin significantly reduced the wait times for key services and studied the effects of many clinical guidelines on patient outcomes.

Dr. Moist, professor of medicine and clinical epidemiology and a clinical scientist, has held many local, provincial and national quality improvement leadership roles. Past appointments include Medical Lead for Vascular Access in the Ontario Renal Network, President for the Canadian Organ Replacement Registry and Canadian Society of Nephrology, and National Guideline Chair for both the Management of Anemia in Chronic Kidney Disease and Timing of Dialysis Start. She is currently the Physician Lead for Internal Medicine for the South West Ontario Local Health Integration Network.

Dr. Gob, assistant professor of medicine and a hematologist, holds a Master of Science in Quality and Patient Safety. He leads the PGY4 and 5 Quality Improvement curriculum for Schulich Medicine & Dentistry’s Department of Medicine. He is cross appointed with the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.