Academy for Healthcare Improvement

The Personal Continuous Quality Improvement Work Book by Duncan Neuhauser, Sylvia Myhre, and Farrokh Alemi has been used all over the world to teach health professional students about quality improvement. Typically students are given a copy of the work book and asked to use the quality tools to improve some process in their life. Typical choices include more exercise, diet change, watching less television or improving study habits, but many other topics are possible.

The example book is used to show students what is expected of them. They are asked to measure their outcome every day, for example distance walked, soft drinks consumed, hours of TV watched or pages read. Run or control charts are used to collect baseline data. Plan, Do Study Act cycles are carried out to make improvements. This is done for 4 to 8 weeks. At the end the student reports their result in story board format to the whole class in a supportive climate. About 90% of students make measured improvements.

These two booklets are in the public domain and can be copied without asking permission.

Duncan Neuhauser dvn@case.edu