IHI Forum 2025: Healthcare Leaders Champion Courage
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement Forum 2025 convened December 7-10 in Anaheim, California, with a message that carried through nearly every session: it's time for healthcare professionals to speak up. With roughly 2,400 attendees, this year's forum centered on a single theme, courage, as leaders addressed the political and economic pressures facing healthcare quality and access.
IHI Forum 2025 drew 2,400 attendees to Anaheim for its 37th year, marking new CEO Sylvia Trent-Adams's first forum. Sessions centered on courage: speaking up on politicized health issues and confronting profit-driven pressures on care quality. The 2026 forum is scheduled for December 6-9 in Phoenix.
Why Did Courage Become This Year's Defining Theme?
Courage appeared repeatedly across keynotes and breakout sessions. IHI, a global nonprofit advancing healthcare quality for over 3 decades, has long counted courage among its core values, and this forum leaned into it directly.
In her inaugural address as IHI President and CEO, Sylvia Trent-Adams urged attendees toward intentional collaboration during a period of rapid change. In a fireside conversation with IHI President Emerita Maureen Bisognano, she emphasized that transformative change requires bold action, healthcare professionals working deliberately across roles, departments, and systems, and empowering patients and communities to shape their own care solutions.
How Are Healthcare Leaders Approaching Politicized Health Issues?
One of the forum's most-discussed sessions tackled an uncomfortable question directly: how should healthcare professionals take public stances on health issues that have become politically charged?
Donald Berwick, IHI's co-founder and president emeritus, facilitated breakout discussions where attendees shared perspectives and best practices. Among the most popular topics: kindness and courage. Participants acknowledged that organizations vary widely in their risk tolerance, there's no single right answer for every institution.
Worth framing precisely: in his closing keynote, Berwick, a former Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator, characterized recent healthcare policy decisions, including reductions affecting Medicaid, public health agencies, research institutions, and safety-net programs, as deeply problematic, and argued that healthcare leaders have a responsibility to push back. This reflects his stated view and the forum's discussion, not a neutral assessment of contested policy, readers evaluating these positions should look at the specific policies in question directly.
What Did Berwick Say About Profit in Healthcare?
Berwick also addressed the role of profit-seeking in healthcare directly, stating there's no room for greed in the field and that quality improvement itself has become politicized. He argued that sustainable quality improvement drives better financial outcomes, not the other way around, framing the discussion around systemic incentives rather than individual organizations.
What Happened at IHI Forum 2025?
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Attendees | ~2,400 |
| Forum year | 37th |
| Sessions | 190 |
| Presenters | 450 |
| Poster presentations | 550+ |
The 4-day event drew nurses, physicians, patient advocates, executives, students, and quality improvement professionals. Content tracks covered improvement capability, patient and workforce safety, health equity, climate change's impact on healthcare, and AI integration.
| Track | What It Covered |
|---|---|
| Improvement capability | Core quality improvement methods and organizational capacity building |
| Patient and workforce safety | Human factors engineering, resilience engineering, leadership essentials for patient safety |
| Health equity | Clinical health equity, including new professional certifications announced at the forum |
| Climate change | Climate change's impact on healthcare delivery and systems |
| AI integration | Artificial intelligence's emerging role in care delivery and operations |
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Learn About &CareIDWhat New Initiatives and Credentials Came Out of the Forum?
The Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative received significant attention, with more than 5,500 healthcare sites now implementing the "4Ms" framework (What Matters, Medication, Mentation, Mobility) for millions of older adults.
IHI also introduced new professional development offerings, including courses on human-centered resilience engineering, human factors in healthcare, and leadership essentials for patient safety, alongside new credentials for professionals specializing in age-friendly healthcare and clinical health equity.
Key Takeaways
- IHI Forum 2025 drew roughly 2,400 attendees to Anaheim for its 37th year, with courage as the defining theme.
- Sylvia Trent-Adams, confirmed as IHI's President and CEO since July 2025, delivered her inaugural forum address on intentional collaboration.
- Sessions on speaking out about politicized health issues reflected genuine debate among attendees, not a single consensus position.
- The Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative has scaled to 5,500+ sites using the "4Ms" framework.
- The 2026 IHI Forum is scheduled for December 6-9 in Phoenix, Arizona.
FAQs
Who is the current President and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement?
Sylvia Trent-Adams, PhD, RN, became IHI's President and CEO effective July 14, 2025, succeeding Kedar Mate, who stepped down in December 2024. IHI Forum 2025 was her first forum as CEO.
What is the Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative?
It's an IHI initiative promoting the "4Ms" framework (What Matters, Medication, Mentation, Mobility) for caring for older adults. As of the 2025 forum, more than 5,500 healthcare sites had adopted the framework.
When and where is the next IHI Forum?
The 2026 IHI Forum is scheduled for December 6-9 in Phoenix, Arizona.
What did Donald Berwick say about profit and greed in healthcare at IHI Forum 2025?
In his closing keynote, Berwick stated there's no room for greed in healthcare and argued that quality improvement itself has become politicized. He framed sustainable quality improvement as the actual driver of better financial outcomes, not the reverse, positioning the discussion around systemic incentives rather than individual organizations.
How large was IHI Forum 2025?
The 37th annual forum drew approximately 2,400 attendees to Anaheim, California, featuring 190 sessions, 450 presenters, and more than 550 poster presentations over 4 days.
