What's your literacy level?

I am writing this editorial after just returning from a conference highlighting an exciting evidence-based project headed by Dr. Shoo Lee from Toronto. Fondly known as EPIQ (Evidence-Based Practice for Improving Quality), this multiyear, multisite study funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research uses benchmarking and a process of continuous quality improvement to address five morbidities in low birth weight infants: retinopathy of prematurity, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, intraventricular hemorrhage, necrotizing enterocolitis, and infection. The three pillars of EPIQ include evaluation and selection of published evidence, identifying hospital-specific practices to target interventions, and building a national body of expertise that can be widely shared among NICUs. Since its inception in 2002, the project has grown to include 27 neonatal units across Canada and has seen the completion of dozens of individual plan-do-study-act cycles.