About Reports

IOM reports provide objective and straightforward advice to decision makers and the public. This site includes IOM reports published after 1998. All reports from the IOM and the National Academies, including those published before 1998, are available from the National Academies Press.

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  Quality Through Collaboration: The Future of Rural Health Released: November 1, 2004

  Rural America is a vital component of American society. Representing nearly 20 percent of the population, rural communities, like urban landscapes, are rich in cultural diversity. However, the smaller, poorer, and more isolated a rural community is, the more difficult it is to ensure the availability of high-quality health services. The Institute of Medicine report, Quality Through Collaboration: The Future of Rural Health examines the quality of health care in rural America.
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  1st Annual Crossing the Quality Chasm Summit: A Focus on Communities Released: September 14, 2004

  On January 6 and 7, 2004, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) hosted the 1st Annual Crossing the Quality Chasm Summit, convening a diverse group of national and community health care leaders to pool their knowledge and resources with regard to strategies for improving patient care for five common chronic illnesses: asthma, depression, diabetes, heart failure, and pain control in advanced cancer.
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  Patient Safety: Achieving a New Standard for Care Released: November 20, 2003

  The IOM released Patient Safety: Achieving a New Standard for Care, a report that describes a detailed plan to facilitate the development of data standards applicable to the collection, coding, and classification of patient safety information. This report describes a detailed plan to facilitate the development of data standards applicable to the collection, coding, and classification of patient safety information.
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  Keeping Patients Safe: Transforming the Work Environment of Nurses Released: November 3, 2003

  Keeping Patients Safe: Transforming the Work Environment of Nurses identifies solutions to problems in hospital, nursing home, and other health care organization work environments that threaten patient safety through their effect on nursing care. A companion to the Institute of Medicine's earlier patient safety report, To Err is Human, the report puts forth a blueprint of actions that all health care organizations which rely on nurses should take.
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  Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality Released: April 18, 2003

  On June 17-18, 2002 over 150 leaders and experts from health professions education, regulation, policy, advocacy, quality, and industry attended the Health Professions Education Summit to discuss and help the committee develop strategies for restructuring clinical education to be consistent with the principles of the 21st-century health system.