Reflections of Wendy Nicklin as her term as President comes to a close

As I hand the President responsibilities over to Jeffrey Braithwaite, I pause to reflect on my 3 years as President. 

As I hand the President responsibilities over to Jeffrey Braithwaite, I pause to reflect on my 3 years as President. 

While I have been on the ISQua Board for over 7 years, the past 3 years have been the most personally impactful and meaningful. 

I have had the honour to work with amazing colleagues – fellow Board members and Honorary Advisors who are second-to-none. Everyone has contributed their rich and candid suggestions to every issue we have addressed. Both the calibre of discussions and the quality of the decisions have been first-rate. The Board has continued to strengthen and is truly an international Board.  

During this time we put considerable time and effort into governance renewal including changes such as: staggering the Board elections and appointments so as to enable better continuity and less disruption with Board transitioning, a comprehensive Board evaluation process – of each meeting and an annual review, changes to the constitution, developing the Board Compact, clarifying the Board and CEO responsibilities. The commitment of the Board to improve our governance processes was strong.  

We established the ISQua External Evaluation Association (EEA) and transitioned the work for the International Accreditation Program to be transacted through EEA in Geneva.

ISQua has undergone major budget challenges for the past few years. At ourCape Townmeeting in October 2019 the Board undertook an extensive review of our budget and options for the future. Combined with the input of Peter and the team, required changes were identified to enable financial viability regardless of circumstances.  

A review of the education portfolio has resulted in positive changes which have seen a significant turnaround in the income generated, the development of a curriculum with modules, anincrease in the number of participants in the fellowship program, an increase in the number and quality of webinars and a resultant increase in ISQua memberships. With thanks to David Bates, the Academy was established. We are now publishing some future–focused articles and identifying other areas of contribution. 

Covid was the unexpected variant in our life early in 2020. Without missing a beat, Peter and the team quickly adapted the approach to working from home, to offer virtual conferences, and recast the budget to address the potential financial shortfall. This is a very stressful period of time for the Staff. We are extremely grateful for their devotion and expertise. The challenges will continue into 2021.

I would be remiss to not mention the upcoming departure of Peter Lachman, our CEO. Peter joined us in 2016 on a five-year contract which concludesin April 2021. On behalf of the entire Board and the many stakeholders, members, experts and colleagues of Peter, we warmly acknowledge his contributions and his leadership of ISQua. The recruitment process for the new CEO commenced in the summer of 2020.

I assume the Past President responsibilities at the AGM on October 29with honour. A sincerest thank you to all staff, members, partners, experts, Academy members, fellows and others in our ISQua family for your continuing support, input and guidance. ISQua has a bright future ahead. In particular a sincere thank you to Jeffrey Braithwaite, who’s advice and wise counsel while President-Elect will not be forgotten. Thank you to Steve Clark, Honorary Treasurer, for his advice and in particular his financial and business expertise which has been particularly invaluable during 2020, and to the entire Board, a group of the most talented professionals with whom I’ve had the honour to work. 

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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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