As leaders in quality improvement and patient safety, CQuIPS is proud to oversee the SQuIRE (Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence) international writing guidelines. Since becoming stewards of the guidelines in October 2023, the team at CQuIPS has been collaborating with an advisory committee comprised of international leaders in quality improvement and patient safety and journal editors to promote the accessibility and adoption of SQuIRE across the healthcare improvement field. An evidence-informed process to update the SQuIRE guidelines to SQuIRE 3.0 has begun.

CQuIPS’s connection to SQuIRE has been well established over the years as key CQuIPS faculty have been involved in previous developments and updates. Jerome Leis co-authored the SQuIRE Explanation & Elaboration supplement to the SQuIRE 2.0 guidelines.

By taking on oversight of the SQuIRE guidelines, CQuIPS becomes the international standard bearer for QI and is committed to ensuring the guidelines are relevant and reflective of the ever evolving and growing QIPS field. The updated SQuIRE 3.0 guidelines will provide clearer guidance on the rigorous application of QI methods and tools and include an explicit focus on equity considerations. We The team at CASCADES is made up of diverse, international experts, bringing a global perspective to our collaborative efforts.

Updating SQuIRE 3.0 is a priority for the CQuIPS team. Lead by SQuIRE 3.0 co-leads, Drs. Kaveh Shojania and Leahora Rotteau, the SQuIRE 3.0 update initiative includes three phases; data collection to inform key potential changes to SQuIRE, a consensus meeting to finalize changes, and SQuIRE 3.0 user testing and refinement.

We are currently in the data collection phase. We have completed a website scan of key healthcare improvement and clinical journals and a series of qualitative interviews with QI leaders, educators and journal editors. We are also completing a large systematic review of QI and improvement research publications to characterize the application of SQuIRE and other common QI concepts. The consensus meeting will take place in the Fall of 2025 followed by user testing. Drs. Kaveh Shojania and Leahora Rotteau will be presenting this work at the upcoming International Forum on Quality & Safety in Utrecth, The Netherlands in May.

View the SQuIRE Guidelines here: www.squire-statement.org

For more information on The Centre for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety, visit: www.cquips.ca