What works in quality improvement? What methods are currently being used to assess and identify best practices? What programs and methods should be pursued in the future?

These questions are addressed in The State of Quality Improvement and Implementation Research: Expert Views, Workshop Summary by the Institute of Medicine. The IOM Forum on the Science of Health Care Quality Improvement and Implementation invited experts both from within and outside of health care to provide a better understanding of what is known about quality improvement and implementation research. Many of the workshop speakers suggested that a variety of research methods are valuable and that researchers must learn which methods are most appropriate in answering different questions. Speakers also identified change and innovation as complex, therefore recognizing the need to build on previous efforts to identify ways forward.