Collaboration-based approaches to healthcare improvement attract much attention. They involve networks of people coming together to cooperate around a common interest, with shared goals of improving care and mutual learning.  Meer

This Element introduces and critically reflects on the contribution of implementation science to healthcare improvement efforts. Grounded in several disciplines, implementation science is the study of strategies to promote the uptake of evidence-based interventions into healthcare practice and policy.  Meer

Healthcare policy frequently invokes notions of cultural change as a means of achieving improvement and good-quality care. This Element unpacks what is meant by organisational culture and explores the evidence for linking culture to healthcare quality and performance.  Meer

Operational research is a collection of modelling techniques used to structure, analyse, and solve problems related to the design and operation of complex human systems.  Meer

Many healthcare improvement approaches originated in manufacturing, where end users are framed as consumers. But in healthcare, greater recognition of the complexity of relationships between patients, staff, and services (beyond a provider-consumer exchange) is generating new insights and approaches to healthcare improvement informed directly by patient and staff experience.  Meer

Positive deviance is an asset-based improvement approach. At its core is the belief that solutions to problems already exist within communities, and that identifying, understanding, and sharing these solutions enables improvements at scale.  Meer

Overuse has become a major issue of healthcare quality, safety, and sustainability around the world. In this Element, the authors discuss concepts, terminology, and the history of concerns.  Meer

Historically simulation was used as an education and training technique in healthcare, but now has an emerging role in improving quality and safety. Simulation-based techniques can be applied to help understand healthcare settings and the practices and behaviours of those who work in them.  Meer

This Element reviews the evidence for three workplace conditions that matter for improving quality and safety in healthcare: staffing; psychological safety, teamwork, and speaking up; and staff health and well-being at work.  Meer