Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Education in Otolaryngology Residency: Preliminary Look at a Module-Based Approach

Since publication of the Institute of Medicine’s report To Err Is Human in 1999, patient safety and health care quality have become hot topics in the parlance of modern medical care. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education now requires integration of these topics into resident education, with evidence of trainee involvement in Patient Safety and Quality Improvement (PSQI) projects. Research in other disciplines indicates that interactive, experiential learning leads to the highest quality PSQI education. Otolaryngology as a field has been slow to adopt these changes into its residency curricula due to competing educational demands and lack of faculty expertise. The author reports preliminary experience with integration of an online module-based curriculum that addresses both of these issues.