Practical Quality Improvement for the Allergist/Immunologist

Quality improvement (QI) has long been part of organized medicine, but has become increasingly more important in the last few years. Clinical expertise and input into QI activities are critical to keep QI grounded in evidence and practice. Busy clinicians face many competing demands; practical strategies are needed to help busy clinicians successfully engage in QI. This article provides a brief history of QI in medicine, notes several commonly used frameworks for QI in health care, and presents a practical QI model that can be applied to the clinical practice of allergy and immunology.