Improving population health through six quality improvement initiatives

The new population-health CQIs aim to bring the successful quality improvement models of the original CQIs to address diabetes, back pain, asthma and suicide prevention, and to reduce health disparities and encourage healthy behaviors in all kinds of care.

  • INspiring Health Advances in Lung CarE (INHALE) – Focused on helping asthma and COPD patients get more coordinated care, and use medications wisely, with help from their primary care and specialty care teams.
  • Michigan Back Collaborative (MIBAC) – Helping primary care providers and chiropractors provide better care for people with low-back pain by offering training, measuring patient-reported outcomes of care, and building a registry that will help identify ways to improve back pain management.
  • Michigan Collaborative for Type 2 Diabetes (MCT2D) – Aimed at preventing and reversing the type of diabetes that millions of Michiganders already have or are at risk for, through better use of medications, dietary changes and advanced blood sugar monitors.
  • Michigan Mental health Innovation Network for clinical Design (MiMIND) - Engaging psychiatrists, psychologists, and primary care physicians to improve suicide prevention and care across Michigan.
Building on years of success in improving health care for acutely ill patients, the CQI portfolio is expanding its focus to target preventing illness and improving foundational health. We are excited to bring the experience and expertise of the CQIs to efforts that will help people effectively manage chronic diseases so they can live their lives to the fullest, and, in some cases, prevent them from getting sick in the first place.
Michael Englesbe, MD
CQI Portfolio Director and Michigan Medicine transplant surgeon

Partnering Population Health CQIs

Two CQIs work across the portfolio to incorporate population health measures into existing CQI by offering evidence-based tools, training, and support. 

  • Healthy Behavior Optimization for Michigan (HBOM) – Focused on helping hospitals and medical groups incorporate tobacco cessation and other health-related behaviors into their outreach to patients.
  • Michigan Social Health Interventions to Eliminate Disparities (MSHIELD) – Promoting whole health for all people through data-driven, community-partnered, equity-centered quality improvement.

Coordinating Centers

MSHIELD, HBOM, INHALE, and MCT2D are based at Michigan Medicine, the University of Michigan’s academic medical center. MIBAC and MIMIND coordinating centers are at Henry Ford Health.

Population Health Registry

The Population Health Registry is is a data collection and reporting platform, launched in 2021, to support the Population Health CQIs.

Historically, the CQIs focused on acute episodes of care but population health improvements engage a wider array of patients and providers. Therefore, the volume of data needed for improving care in these areas is much greater than in the episodic care CQI model.  Moreover, many of these health issues are deeply intertwined and making improvements in one will have positive impacts on the others.  As such, there is significant overlap of data collected for each and sharing that data provides significant benefit across the Population Health CQIs.

Examples of Population Health Registry Data Sources:

  • Health systems and health information exchanges
  • Remote monitoring devices, such as continuous glucose monitors and smart spirometers,
  • Participating CQI patient reported outcomes and surveys.