The new year has come and gone and it has brought much activity in the ISQua office. We have settled into the new surroundings, smaller and more compact, though far more comfortable. And we are in full swing, reflecting, planning and implementing the strategy that defines what we plan to achieve.
The conference in London is gaining momentum. The submissions for workshop are a record high at over 100 and this will give us the welcome, though difficult task of selecting the best ones and reflecting the international representation. Submission of papers is also way up and our call for papers for poster and 15 minute sessions closes on the 15th February – so this is almost time up if you have not already submitted. The line of plenary speakers has been completed and will offer an exciting array of views on quality, safety and person centred care in many different contexts.
London is in a few months’ time and Kuala Lumpur is in 2018. The good news is that in 2019 ISQua will go to the last continent it has not been to – Africa. Cape Town has been selected as the 2019 venue – a city with history, beauty, many tourist attractions and a strong local organising group representing South Africa and the African continent.
This fits in with the work we have started with the African Community of Practice or network, ably led by Bruce Agins who has helped us bring together leaders in over 15 African countries to establish a regional network. This is still in the early days but is an initiative that will continue to grow.
We have a strategy to expand membership in areas where we do not currently have high membership. We have changed the fees we charge for Membership, Fellowship and the Conference. I have advocated for recognition of the different costs for Members from lower and middle income countries. As such, from now on, the rates reflect this and hopefully this will attract more Members and Fellows. The aim is to improve benefits for Members so that if one is a Member one has more attractive fees than if one is not. We are constantly looking at the Membership benefits and will improve continually.
The Education programme is growing with many organisations wanting to send learners. We are developing the curricula for the tracks so that the learners have a clear idea of what is on offer.
The IAP programme has a new programme manager – and it is great that Gillian Conway has joined the team.
As you may know, this is an election year for ISQua and all fully paid up Members can nominate themselves, or others, for a seat on the Board. The Board is very important to the smooth running of ISQua and we look forward to welcoming new ideas and experience.
You will receive information about the Board elections later this year and information will also be found on the ISQua website in the coming weeks. If you or your organisation are interested in being elected as a Board member, please contact Deirdre Burke for more information. For any person or organisation to nominate in the electios, they must be a Member; so if you have any colleagues that you think would be interested please encourage them to join.
Finally, I had a very successful visit to Beijing and Guangzhou in January. The Chinese Alliance of Quality Control Circle had the winners of the recent QCC competition present their projects at a meeting at Tingfuang University in Beijing. All of the projects were of a high quality, demonstrating that there is a strong base for QI in China. We hope to work together with Professor Liu and his team to spread QI and patient safety.
