WHO PATIENT SAFETY CHAMPION TO SPEAK IN ‘SAFER CARE ACCELERATOR’ SERIES

Professor Sir Liam Donaldson, WHO Envoy for Patient Safety and Chairman of the Independent Monitoring for the Polio Eradication Programme, to reflect on key challenges facing health systems to achieve safer care

Doha, Qatar, 13 July 2015: The World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH), a global initiative of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF), in partnership with Imperial College London, has announced its fourth event in the Leading Health Systems Network’s (LHSN) Safer Care Webinar Series: The Road to Safer Care: The Challenge for Health Systems.
Taking place on 15 July, the webinar will focus on the key challenges facing health systems trying to provide safe, high quality patient care. The featured speaker is Professor Sir Liam Donaldson, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Envoy for Patient Safety and Chairman of the Independent Monitoring for the Polio Eradication Programme. In the UK, he is Chair of Health Policy at Imperial College London and Chancellor of Newcastle University. Previously, Sir Liam was the Chief Medical Officer for England, the United Kingdom’s Chief Medical Adviser from 1998-2010. He has produced landmark reports which have set health policy and legislation across multiple healthcare fields.
Sir Liam said: “Over the last decade, patient safety has become a priority for all health systems around the world. Yet, healthcare still struggles to match the year-on-year improvements achieved in other high-risk industries. In healthcare, declaring a goal of zero serious avoidable harm brings out the cynics. In other industries, it motivates and inspires. A growing patient safety movement is striving to break the status quo.”
WISH launched the LHSN Safer Care Accelerator Programme to share best practice and inspire health systems worldwide to provide safer care for patients. The year-long programme will bring together a global network of healthcare organisations to exchange insights, experiences, and data on the topic of patient safety, culminating in the publication of a global report. So far, 18 organisations spanning six continents have joined the effort, including Hamad Medical Corporation and Sidra Medical and Research Center from Qatar.
Hanan Al Kuwari, PhD, Managing Director of Hamad Medical Corporation, said: “At Hamad Medical Corporation, our patients are at the heart of everything we do – we aim to deliver the safest, most effective and most compassionate care to every one of them. In order to do that we know we must continue to evolve and innovate. Global initiatives like WISH and the LHSN Safer Care Accelerator enable us to share innovations in patient safety and best practice in healthcare. This is of great value because it brings together the best minds from around the world with a common goal – creating better healthcare, globally.”
Professor the Lord Darzi of Denham, Executive Chair of WISH, said: “Patient safety remains a priority for most healthcare systems around the world, and the burden of avoidable harm remains worryingly high. Through our LHSN Safer Care Accelerator, we hope to disseminate best practice to support healthcare leaders and policymakers in improving their healthcare system’s safety record and patient experience.”
The Safer Care Accelerator Programme is part of WISH and Imperial College London’s LHSN initiative. Established in 2009, LHSN has worked with 21 health systems in 11 countries helping them to overcome the challenges they face in providing high-value care to the populations they serve. Members of LHSN compare performance relative to their peers, learn from experts and frontline implementers during webinars, and are active members in a community committed to care improvement and innovation.
WISH is spearheaded by Qatar Foundation to inspire and diffuse healthcare innovation and best practice. It remains closely aligned to the vision and mission of QF to unlock human potential and reinforces Qatar’s pioneering role as an emerging centre for healthcare innovation.
To download the WISH report on Patient Safety and learn more about WISH, please visit: wish.org.qa. To join the webinar series, please contact the team at: lhsn@imperial.ac.uk.

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

For more information please contact:
Noha El Afify
WISH Communications Manager
nelafify@wish.org.qa

About the World Innovation Summit for Health:
The World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) is a global healthcare community dedicated to capturing and disseminating the best evidence-based ideas and practices. WISH is an initiative of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF) and is under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, its Chairperson.

The inaugural WISH Summit took place in Doha in 2013 and convened more than 1,000 global healthcare leaders.
Through international summits and a range of on-going initiatives, WISH is creating a global community of leading innovators in healthcare policy, research and industry.

Together, they are harnessing the power of innovation to overcome the world’s most urgent healthcare challenges and inspire other stakeholders to action.

Qatar Foundation – Unlocking Human Potential
Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development is a private, non-profit organisation that is supporting Qatar on its journey from a carbon economy to knowledge economy by unlocking human potential for the benefit of not only Qatar, but the world. WISH was co-founded in 1995 by His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, The Father Amir, and Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of QF.

QF carries out its mission through three strategic pillars: education, science and research, and community development. QF’s education pillar brings world-class universities to Qatar to help create an education sector in which young people can develop the attitudes and skills required for a knowledge economy. Meanwhile, its science and research pillar builds Qatar’s innovation and technology capacity by developing and commercialising solutions through key sciences. Finally, its community development pillar helps foster a progressive society while also enhancing cultural life, protecting Qatar’s heritage and addressing immediate social needs in the community.

For a complete list of QF’s initiatives and projects, visit http://www.qf.org.qa

For more information about Qatar Foundation please contact our press office at: pressoffice@qf.org.qa