Title : Driving clinical and quality projects with inclusion of equity principles
Abstract:
Objective: To propose a new framework to design and implement quality improvement within research projects.
Backgrounds: The design and implementation of resident-driven clinical research quality improvement projects has become increasingly complex. There needs to be a paradigm on how the best way to approach them with a foundation of equity principles into the design.
Methods: We propose using the systematic seven-step model to guide research projects and the SMART template question method to conceive the clinical research questions.
Results: We have used the seven-step model led by a resident team to improve on perioperative processes. The two examples which has been beneficial has been reducing surgical site infection and improving perioperative care. Our monthly dashboard has the rate of surgical site infection and includes other metrics like race to make sure that everyone benefits from the changes introduced. The next project we are working on is making the peri-operative care more agile and standardised.
Conclusion: Our model provides a practical approach to guiding mentors and residents in their pursuit of quality improvement projects. The application has been successfully employed in decreasing wound infection and peri-operative optimization with introduction of dashboards to show success with inclusion of equity as a variable.
