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PERSPECTIVE article

Front. Health Serv.
Sec. Health Policy and Management
Volume 4 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frhs.2024.1454658
This article is part of the Research Topic Frontiers of Improvement Science in Health Services View all articles

What is improvement science, and what makes it different? Outlining the field and its frontiers

Provisionally accepted
Julie E Reed Julie E Reed 1,2*Grazia Antonacci Grazia Antonacci 3Natalie Armstrong Natalie Armstrong 4Ross Baker Ross Baker 5Sonya Crowe Sonya Crowe 6Karin Pukk Harenstam Karin Pukk Harenstam 7Dougal Hargreaves Dougal Hargreaves 3Yogini H Jani Yogini H Jani 6Lloyd Provost Lloyd Provost 8Martin Rejler Martin Rejler 9Carl Savage Carl Savage 7Johan Thor Johan Thor 9Sharon Williams Sharon Williams 10Thomas Woodcock Thomas Woodcock 3
  • 1 Halmstad University, Halmstad, Sweden
  • 2 Other, London, United Kingdom
  • 3 Imperial College London, London, England, United Kingdom
  • 4 University of Leicester, Leicester, East Midlands, United Kingdom
  • 5 University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  • 6 University College London, London, England, United Kingdom
  • 7 Karolinska Institutet (KI), Solna, Stockholm, Sweden
  • 8 Other, Texas, United States
  • 9 Jönköping University, Jönköping, Jönköping, Sweden
  • 10 Swansea University, Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Improvement science has emerged as an interdisciplinary field of enquiry to provide methodological and scientific rigour to the practice and study of improvements in healthcare, and engaging contributions from a wide range of stakeholders and perspectives. However, compared to more well-established health-related sciences, the science of improvement remains in relative infancy. Whilst the improvement community has grown considerably, there is no existing articulation of the scope of what matters to the health and social care improvement community, and how this aligns to the enquiries of the field of improvement science. This paper aims to outline key areas of interest to the improvement community, and to propose distinguishing features of improvement science that help differentiate it from other areas of enquiry.Two over-arching research questions are identified, along with ten associated areas of enquiry which are grouped into three clusters: 1) improvement in practice, 2) aligning improvement efforts and 3) advancing the contribution of the improvement community. Four features that collectively define and distinguish the field of improvement science are proposed.The outline of the improvement landscape provides a common language for the diverse improvement community, enabling people to transcend disciplinary interests and constraints, and to consider how, collectively, we can improve health and care. Others are invited to refine and advance mapping of the improvement landscape by identifying gaps and increasing contributions from diverse perspectives.

    Keywords: Improvement science, Quality Improvement, healthcare, Complex System, implementation sceince, Patient Safety, Knowledge mobilisation

    Received: 26 Jun 2024; Accepted: 24 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Reed, Antonacci, Armstrong, Baker, Crowe, Harenstam, Hargreaves, H Jani, Provost, Rejler, Savage, Thor, Williams and Woodcock. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Julie E Reed, Halmstad University, Halmstad, Sweden

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.