The Improvement Science Research Network is a large-scale academic-practice based healthcare research network that was created to accelerate inter-professional improvement science across multiple healthcare sites. In October, 2009, development of the ISRN was supported by the National Institutes of Health through funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's "Grand Opportunities" Program. The ISRN's goal is to fill a national gap in improvement science through a sustained research network for testing system-focused improvement strategies in healthcare. To anchor its inter-professional focus, the ISRN is part of the at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio and is housed in the UTHSCSA School of Nursing. The ISRN provides a national laboratory for investigators from across broad geographical range to study improvement, healthcare delivery systems, dissemination, implementation, translation, safety, and patient outcomes. The ISRN infrastructure supports virtual collaboration in the conduct of network studies through direct engagement of study partners and sites, network study principal investigators, and centralized support. Built upon lessons learned from practice-based research networks, the ISRN is registered with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality as an active PBRN.
Improvement science
While "improvement science" is an emerging field, it shares common aspects with other areas of research such as implementation science, translational science, healthcare delivery science, and knowledge translation. These fields are similar in their focus on transforming what is learned from research into common practice to improve care processes and outcomes. "Improvement science" is proposed as the most inclusive term in this list and is proposed as a specialty within health services research.
Because improvement science is a new scientific field, a common vocabulary is emerging. The influence of improvement science will be accelerated by the ability to measure outcomes and index knowledge; this is not possible without a specific taxonomy reflective upon, of the science itself. An improvement science taxonomy will provide a way for subject matter experts to develop, reflect upon, characterize, and examine relationships among the components that comprise improvement science as a whole, rather than individual parts. The goal is for users to have the ability to access improvement science knowledge and resources by using a consistent set of terms for organizing, retrieving, and delivering information for their own improvement purposes. The ISRN framework and the Stevens Star Model of Knowledge Transformation are reflected in an international effort to create common terminology of organizational interventions for implementing best evidence-based practices into health practices, systems and policies. To date, this effort resulted in development of a simplified model of interventions to promote and integrate evidence into health practices, systems, and policies and a review of classification schemes for these interventions.
Research priorities
The Improvement Science Research Network established national stakeholder consensus on research priorities that distinguish it from other practice-based research networks. These priorities highlight the most important and urgent gaps in improvement knowledge as identified by clinical and academic scholars, leaders, and change agents across major healthcare disciplines. The research priorities guide decisions about the direction of ISRN discovery and dissemination efforts toward ISRN-sponsored knowledge in each of the following domains of improvement science:
Coordination and Transitions of Care – this category emphasizes strategies for improvement to care processes in specific clinical conditions. At this time, care coordination and transitions of care are the key clinical focus. Examples of Research Issues: Team performance, medication reconciliation, discharge for prevention of early readmission, patient centered care, measurement of targeted outcomes.
High Performing Clinical Systems and Microsystems Approaches to Improvement – this category emphasizes structure and process in clinical care and healthcare as complex adaptive systems. Examples of Research Issues: Frontline provider engagement, factors related to uptake, adoption and implementation, sustaining improvements and improvement processes.
Evidence-Based Quality Improvement and Best Practice – this category emphasizes closing the gap between knowledge and practice through transforming knowledge and designating and implementing best practices. Examples of Research Issues: Develop and critically appraise clinical practice guidelines, adoption and spread of best practices, customization of best practices, institutional elements in adoption, defining best practice in absence of evidence, consumers in EBP, technology-based integration.
Learning Organizations and Culture of Quality and Safety – this category emphasizes human factors and other aspects of a system related to organizational culture and commitment to quality and safety. Examples of Research Issues: Unit based nursing quality teams, protecting strategy from culture, engendering values and beliefs for culture of patient safety.
Governance
The ISRN is affiliated with the PBRN Resource Center of the Institute for Integration of Medicine and Science, University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio. Through this alignment, ISRN addresses "Translational Science 3" phases of moving knowledge into practice. The interprofessional ISRN is a membership organization advised by the ISRN Steering Council. The Steering Council is composed of twelve healthcare experts, leaders, and stakeholders from both private and public agencies and facilities. Steering Council members represent a variety of backgrounds and contribute knowledge and guidance in areas such as patient safety, improvement and implementation research methods, clinical and organizational excellence criteria, systems engineering, healthcare informatics, quality measures, and team performance. The collective expertise of this multidisciplinary group reflects advanced knowledge of healthcare improvement science and aligns the ISRN's research and activities with stakeholder priorities. ISRN activities are supported by a coordinating team housed in the School of Nursing at the School of Nursing of the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio.
Events
Web events
The Improvement Science Research Network Web Event series expands capacity for conducting improvement studies through discussions of issues in the field of improvement science, provides updates regarding the ISRN activities, introduces new tools and research paradigms, and sets the stage for input regarding new directions for research. The first session of the web event series, "The Way Forward: An Introduction to Improvement Science", was held in June 2010. Presented by Jack Needleman, PhD, FAAN, and Kathleen R. Stevens, EdD, MS, RN, ANEF, FAAN, this introductory session showcased the activities of the ISRN as a catalyst for change. The discussion included definition of improvement science, exploration of the overlapping paradigms of improvement science, translational science, and implementation science and explanation of the need and context for improvement research and a discussion of improvement science research methods, study opportunities, and ISRN research results. Furthermore, the discussion enumerated the challenges facing improvement science and health care improvement in general, including a lack of evidence-based research methodologies; limited facility access to national improvement science experts; need for the on-site training in research methodologies; and lack of adequate collegial and technological infrastructure to support a national agenda of improvement science research priorities. The event showcased solutions available to meet these challenges, including the ISRN. Recordings are accessible on the ISRN website.
Membership
Membership in the ISRN is open to all who are healthcare researchers, academic and clinical scientists, clinicians, clinical leaders, administrators, and those with a specific interest in patient safety and improvement research.
