QI in Public Health Practice Exchange: An Online Resource for Learning and Networking

Numerous governmental public health departments across the country are undertaking quality improvement (QI) initiatives. In order to spread and amplify what is being learned through these initiatives and facilitate increased use of QI in public health practice, a robust website known as the “Quality Improvement in Public Health Practice Exchange” was launched in October 2012. Supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Practice Exchange organizes the expanding number of QI efforts conducted by governmental public health departments across the country, provides search and query functions to enable users to find interventions and tools relevant to their own health department and community needs, and offers related resources to facilitate and support QI efforts. The Practice Exchange provides a forum to facilitate dialogue and learning, creating an online community among the website users. The Practice Exchange is designed to demystify QI, i.e., to change the perception of QI as something complex, burdensome or out of reach to a recognition of QI as a valuable framework and set of tools that health departments of all sizes and structures can apply to the work they do. The speaker in this session will demonstrate how to use the Practice Exchange, including the Web 2.0 features for the learning community and incentives to participate in active online exchange.