Opening Keynote: The Future of QI: The Catalytic Effect of COVID-19


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The COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed the world as we knew it, especially in healthcare.  However, amid the immense suffering and disruption, rays of sunlight are beginning to emerge. The power—and now urgency—of quality improvement in the healing of our patients, our communities, and ourselves is undeniable. This keynote will describe the QI philosophies and practical tools needed today, and showcase the amazing capacity of the human spirit to power us through.

Learning Outcomes: 

  • Articulate the power of quality improvement in the COVID-19 era as not only a core business strategy, but as an approach to deepening meaning in healthcare
  • Describe the profile of a modern QI program, informed by the lessons of the pandemic   
  • Apply learnings and strategies to your daily work

CE/CME Credit:
Nurse, Physician, Non-Physician Healthcare Professional

Laura Adams

Special Advisor, National Academy of Medicine

Laura is the founding President and CEO of the Rhode Island Quality Institute (RIQI), a center of collaborative innovation that advances health and healthcare transformation. Health Data Management named her to their 2018 Most Powerful Women in Health IT in the Thought Leader category and Becker’s Hospital Review named her to the 2018 inaugural list of Female Health IT Leaders to Know. She is currently co-chairing the National Academy of Medicine’s Health Data Trust Initiative Steering Committee. Laura serves on the Oversight Council for the MA Center for Health Information and Analysis and served on the Rhode Island Governor’s Workgroup on Healthcare Innovation. Laura served on the ONC’s Health Information Technology Policy Committee’s Governance Panel for the Nationwide Health Information Network. She chaired the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) Planning Committee for the “Digital Infrastructure for Population Health and a Learning Healthcare System” initiative.

Laura traveled in the U.S. and Europe with W. Edwards Deming in the study of statistical-based quality improvement. She was Founder, President and CEO of Decision Support Systems, a New York-based company specializing in Internet-based healthcare decision support. She has been a faculty member of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) in Boston since its inception. She directed the IHI Idealized Design of the Intensive Care Unit project and served as faculty in the VHA’s ICU improvement collaborative and was the Principal Investigator on the RI Statewide ICU Collaborative. She was among the first to bring the principles of healthcare QI to the Middle East, in conjunction with Donald Berwick, MD and the Harvard Institute for Social and Economic Policy in the Middle East. She served as IHI faculty at the inaugural IHI Middle East Forum on Quality Improvement in Healthcare in Doha, Qatar.

Laura has delivered conference keynotes in nearly every state in the union and in 13 different countries. RIQI won the National Council for Community Behavioral Health Excellence Award for Impact in serving those with behavioral health and substance abuse challenges. She has received citations from the RI Congressional delegation for her visionary leadership and contributions to improving the healthcare system in Rhode Island. Laura received University of Northern Colorado’s Distinguished Alumni award. Her company was named RI’s Most Innovative Company in Healthcare in 2015; was named 2017 Employer of Choice by the Employer’s Association of New England; and is a multi-year winner of RI’s Best Places to Work award from the Providence Business News. RIQI won the 2017 Innovation Award in Healthcare in Rhode Island, a national 2018 Healthcare Informatics Innovation Award for impact on the opioid crisis and was named a finalist for the 2018 New England Business Innovation award, again for impact on the opioid crisis.

Opening Keynote
07/22/2020 at 12:30 PM (EDT)  |  Recorded On: 07/22/2020
07/22/2020 at 12:30 PM (EDT)  |  Recorded On: 07/22/2020

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