The department's Quality Improvement Patient Safety Committee (QIPS), co-chaired by Drs. Jennifer Lee and Robert Kim, has received a Learning Health System Champion Research Award from the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC). The award recognizes innovations in medical education, care delivery, research, and diversity.
Established in 2010, the QIPS Committee cultivates high-impact research that includes residents-in-training supervised and mentored by faculty from the Weill Department of Medicine. The recent award-winning proposal submitted by QIPS to the AAMC was spearheaded by co-chairs, Lee and Kim, and Dr. Tara Bishop, Director of QIPS's QI Operations. A cornerstone of QIPS mission in research is its annual poster session held at Weill Cornell, an event which consistently attracts hospital and department leadership. To date, 24 research projects have been presented at the annual poster sessions with nine spearheaded by residents (all projects were led by teams including faculty, residents and nursing). Two of the projects involved social workers and care coordinators. Six focused on high-value care (including one resident project). Nearly half of the projects were presented as posters at national conferences.
The AAMC's Learning Health System Champion Research Award will help to support QIPS to implement its five-year plan which aims to develop sustainable programs for faculty education in quality improvement, the establishment of a formal mentorship network, and raising awareness of QI research through publications and national dissemination. Ultimately, QIPS seeks to unite quality-seeking champions from every division within the Weill Department of Medicine to deliver initiatives that will drive high-value, high-quality care in both the inpatient and outpatient settings.
"We are thrilled to have received this award from the AAMC," says Dr. Lee, "and we look forward to future funding opportunities that will serve to support our innovative research efforts in patient safety and quality improvement. We hope this award will be the beginning of increased funding opportunities that will expand our network of future inter-institutional and interdisciplinary collaborations."