Dr. Carsten’s 2nd anniversary as ISQua’s CEO

I have now completed the second year of my term as ISQua CEO. I fully enjoy working to support our dynamic and vibrant network of Individual Members, Fellows, Institutional Members, and Organisational Partners to achieve our noble mission and vision.

I have now completed the second year of my term as ISQua CEO. I fully enjoy working to support our dynamic and vibrant network of Individual Members, Fellows, Institutional Members, and Organisational Partners to achieve our noble mission and vision.

For a network, it is important to meet; therefore, a highlight of the year is the annual ISQua Conference. Like everyone else, I was excited about coming together in Brisbane for the first time in three years. The prospects for this year’s conference in Seoul also look very promising: We have seen a marked increase in the number of abstracts received compared to last year, and the number of registrations is already excellent. There are special early bird rates for the conference available until the 7th of June, and if you join ISQua as a member, you will save money on your conference registration. Our partners, the Korean Society for Quality in Health Care (KoSQua), Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA), and the Korea Institute for Healthcare Accreditation (KOIHA), and the other members of the Programme Planning Committee are doing great work to ensure that the conference once again will be memorable.

Visiting member organisations and partners around the World is stimulating. Over the last few months, I have visited India, Jordan, and Bahrain. It has been inspiring and encouraging to meet the commitment and engagement and see its impact, and we will have even more over the coming years. Quality is on the agenda everywhere.

Together with Prof Jeffrey Braithwaite, ISQua President, and Prof Ezequiel Garcia Elorrio, ISQua President-Elect, I participated in the 5th Global Ministerial Summit on Patient Safety in Montreux, Switzerland, in February, arranged by the WHO. We took the opportunity to meet with our partners at the WHO Head Office and agreed with the Patient Safety Flagship that ISQua will establish a Patient Safety Task Force that will support ISQua in taking up fully the role of a stakeholder in the sense of WHO’s Global Patient Safety Action Plan; we will establish this Task Force over the coming months.

Looking forward, there are other important tasks ahead of us.

The International Accreditation Programme (IAP) delivered by ISQua EEA is currently in its 5th edition. We have initiated an in-depth review and revision process, beginning with gathering information from a broad range of stakeholders; this information will feed into the actual revision, beginning with the Principles for the Development of Health and Social Care Standards, but later also including the Standards for External Evaluation Organisation. The purpose of the revision is to ensure that the accreditation programmes accredited by ISQua EEA will support healthcare providers in meeting the present challenges: delivering safe, effective, person-centred, equitable healthcare; ensuring that healthcare systems are resilient and promoting sustainability; introducing co-production with staff and service users; leveraging the opportunities provided by the IT revolution we are facing. The value of the IAP is that it allows you to design an accreditation programme tailored for a specific purpose and context, to meet specific challenges while remaining assured that it meets fundamental principles for a good accreditation programme.

We are giving ISQua’s educational programmes, first and foremost the Fellowship, an extensive facelift. The interest in participating has grown rapidly, and it has proven not feasible to scale up to meet demand within the current model for delivery. Also, we must adapt to a world of AI and chatbots. The aim is to ensure that the Fellowship remains an affordable and easily accessible source of knowledge for self-improvement based on content delivered by world-renowned experts.

ISQua is also prepared to partner in consortia, responding to tenders for healthcare quality and safety projects.

So, as you will see, exciting times are coming. I look forward to commencing the journey into the future with you.

Carsten Engel.

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Nourhan Kawtharani

Nourhan, a quality and safety coordinator with eight years of experience in ambulatory healthcare in Lebanon, aims to deepen her understanding of the systemic and holistic approach to healthcare through this fellowship.

She aims to identify gaps and develop tailored interventions that address specific contexts rather than applying general solutions. Engaging with diverse professionals and perspectives during this educational journey will expand the application of these concepts across different cultural settings.

Nourhan emphasizes the importance of promoting a culture of continuous learning and improvement within healthcare institutions, considering it a vital leadership responsibility to integrate quality and safety initiatives into the organizational culture.

Nourhan's commitment to patient safety and quality management includes sourcing practical resources and transforming insights into actionable knowledge to drive continued progress in healthcare practices and outcomes.

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Elom Otchi

Elom is passionate about improving quality of care and patient safety outcomes.

In view of this, he has had the opportunity to work in various capacities with various organisations including AfIHQSA, WHO, UNICEF and others undertaking research, supporting the development of national quality policies and strategies, facilitating the establishment of quality governance systems across all the levels of the health sector and building capacity of national and sub-national quality leads/teams to institutionalize the practice of quality and patient safety across the continent.

He has also worked extensively across all levels of care in the health sector of Ghana, including leading the Quality & Patient Safety program in its largest teaching hospital.

I would like to use this Fellowship as a learning platform and an opportunity to acquire the requisite knowledge, skills and competencies to complement ongoing efforts by like-minded individuals and organizations to continuously advance improve the quality and patient safety in Ghana and the continent.

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Stephen Taiye Balogun

Stephen is a Senior Programme Officer at the Institute of Human Virology in Nigeria as well as Country Representative for Health Information for All (HIFA).

Stephen plans to use this opportunity to maximise his impact by championing the cause of patient safety and quality in Nigeria and across Africa.

Stephen says "Quality and safety is a major wheel through which universal healthcare coverage can be achieved. The goal is to be a bridge in the gap between the International Quality Improvement and Patient Safety community and my country to ensure rapid spread, adoption, implementation and practice."

We are looking forward to working with both Stephen and our 2020 winner Rhoda Kalondu over the next year.

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Dr Rhoda Kalondu

Rhoda is the Head of the Patient Safety Unit at Kenyatta Hospital in Nairobi and wants to use this Fellowship to learn how to establish a culture of safety and develop systems for assessment and analysis at her institution, and more widely. As well as this, Rhoda intends to develop and execute an intervention to improve patient safety in Kenyatta National Hospital.

It is one thing to institute measures and processes for improvement, but quite another to change the culture of an environment. Rhoda's ambition to lead others in this change inspired the panel.

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Dr Subhrojyoti Bhowmick

I am an MBBS graduate from Calcutta University with a Gold Medal in Gynecology & Obstetrics.

I have completed M.D in Pharmacology from IPGME& R, Kolkata and have over 12 years of experience in the field of Clinical Research, Pharmacovigilance and Medication management in Hospitals.

I have completed certification in Clinical Research Administration & Project Management from Stanford University, USA and in Patient Safety from Johns Hopkins University, USA.

I am an Assessor for National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Health care providers (NABH), India assessing hospitals for medication safety and clinical quality standards and NABH Assessor for Ethics Committee Accreditation program in India as well.

I serve as the Chairperson, Institutional Ethics Committee of Health Point Hospital, Kolkata and am associated with 2 other Hospital ethics committees as a member.

I finished my Fellowship in Healthcare Quality from the International Society of Quality in Healthcare (ISQua) from Ireland in 2017.

I have published several research articles and have also authored a chapter on “Regulations governing Clinical Trial” in the book “Fundamentals of Clinical Trial & Research”.

I am a peer reviewer for prestigious international journals like the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, CNS Drugs and Drug Safety case reports.

I am the recipient of the UK Seth Oration Award for Best Clinical Pharmacology paper by the Indian Pharmacological Society in 2009 and the “Most promising Healthcare professional in Patient Safety in India” award by the Asian African Chamber of Commerce and Industry in October 2018.

Recently in April 2019, I received the Young Quality Achiever award by Consortium of Accredited Healthcare Organizations (CAHO), India for 2019 for my work in the field of medication safety and clinical research.

I have a keen interest in teaching and am visiting adjunct faculty of Pharmacology at KMC, Mangalore, India and for Healthcare technology at MAKAUT, Kolkata, India.

I was associated with Stanford University School of Medicine, in the USA as a Senior Clinical Research Associate from 2015 to 2017 and have certification in Biostatistics, Evidence-based Medicine and Medical Writing from Stanford University.

Currently, I am working as the Clinical Director of Academics, Medical Quality and Clinical Research at Peerless Hospital and B K Roy Research Centre, Kolkata.

I am very happy and thrilled to receive the prestigious ISQua Lucian Leape Patient safety Fellowship Award for 2019 and I look forward to honing my skills further in the field of healthcare quality and patient safety through my experiences during this fellowship.

I sincerely believe that successful completion of this fellowship will help me evolve as a more confident Patient safety leader in India who in turn can provide significant inputs on policy changes through NABH for the Indian healthcare system.

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