BMJ  2007;334 (19 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39217.615637.BE

Editor's Choice

Editor's choice

Improving patient care

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

One thing that unites BMJ readers must surely be their desire to improve patient care, whether through research, education, health systems management, or direct clinical contact with patients. But what does this really mean? A couple of months ago Don Berwick, president of the Institute of Healthcare Improvement (IHI), asked us what the BMJ's mission was. On hearing that is was, yes, to improve patient care (http://resources.bmj.com/bmj/sitemap/about-bmj/Our-vision-and-mission), he challenged us to get more concrete. What exactly did we want to improve and how?

This got us thinking. Those of you who have heard Don Berwick speak will know that he is a hard man to resist. (Those of you who haven't heard him speak can do so via the web cast on bmj.com of last month's International Forum on Quality and Safety in Health Care, in which he asks whether health care can even be safe (. . . [Full text of this article]

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