Newly founded National Institute for Quality Improvement and Education

The newly founded National Institute for Quality Improvement and Education (NIQIE) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the integration of quality improvement and continuing education for healthcare professionals.

The Institute will create strategies, compliance programs, and research interventions to support the evolution in medical education towards quality and physician performance improvement. The initiative is timely given the new ACCME Criteria for Accreditation calling for CME providers to improve professional practice through continuing medical education in order to achieve Level 3 compliance.

Nancy Davis, PhD serves as Executive Director of NIQIE. She most recently served as the director of Continuing Medical Education at the American Academy of Family Physicians, Leawood, Kansas. An internationally known leader in CME, Dr. Davis has several publications to her credit and is a frequent speaker at CME professional conferences. She has held various leadership positions including President of the Society for Academic Continuing Medical Education, Chair of the CME Directors of the Council of Medical Specialty Societies and member of the CME Advisory Committee of the Alliance for Continuing Medical Education. She currently serves on the Executive Committee of MedBiquitous, a consortium of healthcare organizations dedicated to developing technical standards for medical education.

"NIQIE will provide the kind of support that is needed to move the healthcare quality movement forward," says Davis. "There needs to be a solid link between quality improvement measures and continuing medical education in order to really make a change in practice which ultimately leads to improvements in patient care. "

Dr. Davis also serves as Vice President of Professional Affairs and Research for CECity, the health care education technology company that is providing start-up support for NIQIE. "The convergence between quality and CME is real," said CECity's President Lloyd Myers RPh. "However, the knowledge and relationship gap that exists between CME and Quality in healthcare is vast. We are proud to support NIQIE in its efforts to narrow the gap and are hopeful that other stakeholders will help NIQIE achieve its goals."