Developing a science of improvement

Abstract

Clinicians are used to using scientific evidence when they make decisions about the care they provide for patients: they have a good idea of what blood pressure they should be aiming to achieve for patients with diabetes, and there is enough evidence about the outcomes of knee joint replacement surgery to enable an informed conversation with patients presenting with osteoarthritis. Information to guide clinical decisions about what to do, or what to advise patients to do, is available, comprehensible and increasingly easy to access.