Volume 1, Number 1 - August/September 1997

The Institute for Health Care Improvement (IHI) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating improvements in the health care systems of the United States and Canada. IHI Executive Vice President Maureen Bisognano offers this introduction to the Collaborative on the Prevention of Motor Vehicle Injuries.

For over a year, 10 teams from across the United States have been using an innovative improvement methodology to create rapid, measurable, and lasting changes that lead to measurable reductions in motor vehicle crashes and injuries in their communities. Together, these 10 teams constitute the Collaborative on the Prevention of Motor Vehicle Injuries, a project co-sponsored by the American Society for Quality and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

Both the improvement methodology and the community-team approach used in the Collaborative are extremely well-suited to the needs of Safe Community coalitions and other community-based traffic safety and injury prevention programs. Future issues of Building Safe Communities will feature case studies of the Collaborative projects and interviews with participants in these projects. We look forward to this opportunity to share our tools - and our successes - with you.

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