Celebrating Connection, Inclusion and Co-Creation in Healthcare Improvement and Patient Safety at the 2025 CQuIPS Symposium
On November 13, we welcomed more than 280 improvement leaders, learners, clinicians, patient partners and researchers to the 2025 Annual CQuIPS Symposium, a day dedicated to learning, sharing and advancing collective impact across our health system.
New this year: Patients Included status
This year marked a significant milestone: CQuIPS achieved its first-ever “Patients Included” designation, recognizing our commitment to meaningfully integrating patient partners across all aspects of planning and delivery. This notable improvement grew out of feedback from previous Symposium delegates who questioned the lack of patient and family presence.
Patient partners served on the planning committee, advised on the structure and content of the program, co-designed and co-delivered sessions, and brought their voice, perspectives and experiences to the fore. During the Opening Remarks, three patient partners set the tone for the day, emphasizing partnership, co-production, and inclusion. Later, patient partners led a dedicated breakout session, offering insights on embedding patient expertise into everyday improvement work.
CQuIPS also offered scholarships to support 20 patient partners to attend, helping ensure full participation and an immersive learning experience throughout the day.
Plenaries and Leadership Reflections
The energized tone was set with opening remarks from Dr. Lisa Robinson, Dean of the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, who highlighted the importance of academic-clinical partnerships in driving safer, more equitable care. She acknowledged the impact that CQuIPS has had across the Faculty and offered warm congratulations on the Centre’s renewal for an additional five-year term, and Dr. Brian Wong’s re-appointment as our Director.
This year’s morning plenary featured Professor Jane O’Hara from The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute (THIS) in the UK, who explored the many roles patients, families and communities play as recipients, reporters and co-creators of system safety. Her thought-provoking session challenged delegates to rethink how system safety work is designed and who is included from the outset.
Our closing plenary was delivered by Dr. Jerome Leis, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto, who shared inspiring examples for how scaling, spreading and sustaining QI requires a deep partnership between academics and operations.
A Full Day of Insightful, Engaging Programming
Throughout the day, attendees selected from a wide range of concurrent sessions including research and project-based oral abstract presentations, design thinking, collaborative action towards reducing serious safety events, embedding equity in QI, co-producing improvement, AI in healthcare, and more.
A highlight this year was the session on SQuIRE 3.0, reflecting CQuIPS’ new leadership role in stewarding and advancing the Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence. Participants engaged deeply in shaping the next chapter of the guidelines and their application across diverse improvement settings.
Showcasing Improvement: Oral Presentations and Posters
This year featured two oral abstract presentation sessions, showcasing innovative QI and research projects, as well as more than 60 posters, both in-person and virtual. Projects spanned clinical quality, equity-focused improvement, digital innovation, system redesign, patient experience, safety culture, and more (see the 2025 Abstract Book for the full range of topics).
The poster galleries were lively hubs for discussion, allowing attendees to dive into real-world examples of improvement work happening across the system and beyond.
Congratulations to our Oral Presentation winners! (Pictured above)
Research Category:
Exploring Barriers to Cancer Care Among Patients at an Inner-City, Public-Payer Cancer Clinic in Ontario, Canada – Cross-sectional Survey Results from the Care for All Health Equity Pilot at St. Michael’s Hospital.
An important contribution advancing equity in cancer care.
Project Category:
Improving Emergency Department Timeliness and Equity of Care for Patients with Sickle Cell Disease.
A powerful example of quality improvement driving meaningful change for underserved populations.
Thank you to all presenters, attendees, and partners who helped make this year’s Symposium such a success. Your dedication to accelerating quality improvement and patient safety continues to elevate and strengthen our community.
A Growing Community
We were thrilled to welcome attendees from hospitals, primary care, public health, academic institutions, long-term care, community organizations, and research centers across the country. The energy throughout the day reflected a strong and connected community committed to advancing higher quality, safer, more equitable systems of care.
Thank you to everyone who contributed, especially our patient partners, whose leadership, insights and partnership enriched every aspect of the day. We look forward to building on this momentum, and seeing you next year at the 2026 CQuIPS Symposium!
THANK YOU from CQuIPS!!!! See you next year!
