Dear Reader

Welcome to the new QIO News. In this issue we unveil an electronic format that is easier to read and to share with quality improvement colleagues, partners and stakeholders. We will also work hard to bring you QIO News more often—every other month—so that you can stay on top of all of the great work happening across the country to improve the quality of American health care.

We’ve also added a new feature: “Quality Talk,” a Q&A with a quality improvement leader. This issue’s Quality Talk features Jean Moody-Williams, who shares valuable insights on the overall benefits of the QIO Program from her perspective as Director of the Quality Improvement Group. She accurately portrays the impact QIOs have on health quality, touches on her vision for the QIO Program and highlights the importance of collaboration as a key element of QIO success.

Our annual QualityNet Conference is one of the most important ways that CMS fosters collaboration. This year’s event took place December 1-3 in Baltimore. National health care leadership from CMS, QIOs, the Medicare End Stage Renal Disease Networks, and other public and private stakeholder organizations came together to discuss current progress and new directions for quality improvement work at CMS. We will feature highlights from our QualityNet Conference in our next issue.

Barry M. Straube, M.D.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
Chief Medical Officer and Director, Office of Clinical Standards and Quality