WORLD INNOVATION SUMMIT FOR HEALTH LAUNCHES ACCELERATOR PROGRAMME TO REDUCE AVOIDABLE DEATHS CAUSED BY POOR PATIENT CARE

Collaboration with Imperial College London sees publication of report assessing patient safety effectiveness across health systems

Doha, Qatar, 25 March 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 today launched a ‘Safer Care Accelerator’ programme that aims to share global best practices in care and treatment to expedite improvement in patient safety.

Patient safety is the third biggest killer in the US and costs USD1trillion a year. Errors in treatment and care are claiming 400,000 lives each year¹. Meanwhile, 1 in 10 patients is harmed while receiving hospital care².

Failure to address the growing concern of patient safety contributes to waste in the healthcare system and sky-rocketing costs. It is estimated that as much as one-third of all US healthcare spending was consumed by waste in 2011³. Patient Safety is clearly a serious public health issue and yet is often overlooked in national policy and global agendas.

In response to this challenge, the ‘Safer Care Accelerator’, a year-long programme, will bring together an international group of healthcare organisations concerned with the unprecedented costs, financial and physical, associated with poor patient safety. Throughout the year, members will exchange insights, experiences, and data on the topic of patient safety, culminating in the publication of a global report. So far, 15 organisations spanning six continents have joined the effort, including Hamad Medical Corporation.

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. The past two WISH summits have been held in Doha, attracting leaders from the global healthcare community.

The ‘Safer Care Accelerator’ programme is part of WISH and Imperial College London’s Leading Health Systems Network (LHSN) initiative. Set up 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 published a complementary report on Patient Safety last month, identifying reasons for the on-going heartbreak of preventable harm in healthcare and offering solutions to bridge the gaps prevalent in today’s approach to Patient Safety.

Dr Peter Pronovost, Senior Vice President for Patient Safety and Quality and Director of the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality at John Hopkins Medicine in the United States, who has been appointed as the WISH Patient Safety Forum Chair, identified key issues such as lack of regulation, understanding and integration, as well as offered a range of innovative solutions that will provide recommendations to global policy makers.

Professor The Lord Darzi of Denham, Executive Chair of WISH, said: “Last year, over EURO5bn was spent on patients who contracted infections while receiving care in the EU alone⁴. The WISH report offered valuable case studies and evidence to support policy level recommendations to start turning the tide on these figures. The LHSN Safer Care Accelerator allows health care providers to share their own insights, learn about best practice, and access key analytics. This multidisciplinary approach offers us a comprehensive toolkit fromwhichto improve safety records and with it, patient experience.”

Through the Safer Care Accelerator, WISH and LHSN hope to provide learnings, insights and recommendations to enable healthcare workers and policymakers to better prioritise initiatives that will improve safety, experience and outcomes for patients, crucially saving lives and reducing the burden on healthcare budgets.

To download the WISH Patient Safety report and learn more, please visit: wish.org.qa.

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¹ –http://journals.lww.com/journalpatientsafety/Fulltext/2013/09000/A_New,_Evidence_based_Estimate_of_Patient_Harms.2.aspx 
² – WHO. 10 Facts on Patient Safety. http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/patient_safety/en/;
³ – http://www.wish-qatar.org/summit/2015-summit/reports-en/patient-safety-en
⁴ – European Commission. Patient Safety in the EU: 2014. http://ec.europa.eu/health/patient_safety/docs/ps2014_infograph_en.pdf

ENDS

Notes to Editors:
For more information please contact:
Noha El Afify
WISH Communications Manager
nelafify@wish.org.qa
+974 7768 6624

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 ongoing 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. Founded in 1995 by His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, The Father Emir, QF is chaired by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser.
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