EPIQ - Evidence-based Practice for Improving Quality

The Evidence-based Practice for Improving Quality (EPIQ) program (to link to this page EPIQ Today) is the collaboration between 31 level 3 Canadian NICUs. The EPIQ program was launched in 2003 and hosts an annual meeting to gather Canada’s NICU community to work together and learn together. The goal is to improve outcomes of preterm birth.

EPIQ also refers to the EPIQ process, a scientific method for continuous Quality Improvement (QI) methods for healthcare settings.

CPBF’s connection with EPIQ began over 10 years ago, when our Executive Director, Fabiana Bacchini, attended her first EPIQ meeting. Sitting in a room full of experts discussing outcomes for babies and families, she noticed something important was missing: parent voices.

That question— “Where are the parents?”—sparked a relationship that has grown over the past decade.

In 2018, CPBF attended the EPIQ conference to observe and brought 20 parents along. This was a turning point. Conversations began about how CPBF could help bring more parent voices into EPIQ so that families would be truly represented in discussions about care and outcomes.

From those conversations, a dedicated parent breakout session was created, and CPBF began working closely with EPIQ and the Canadian Neonatal Network (CNN) to integrate parent and family perspectives into the conference.

Participating in Quality Improvement (QI) work is one of the most effective ways for parent partners to contribute to real, lasting change in neonatal care in Canada.

Parents live the NICU experience every day. Their insights into what works, what doesn’t, and what truly matters for families are essential to designing meaningful improvements. Without parent voices, QI work risks missing the real-life needs, fears, and priorities of families.

CPBF’s involvement ensures that:

• Parents are not just “represented,” but actively engaged.

• QI projects reflect family priorities as well as clinical priorities.

• Changes in care are informed by both evidence and lived experience.

Our main goal is to connect parents with researchers and health care teams so they can work together to design, test, and sustain improvements in the NICU.

CPBF plays a bridging and an advocacy role within EPIQ:

• Increasing parent partner capacity to participate in QI – CPBF sponsors EPIQ workshops for parent partners to learn QI fundamentals and raises awareness about the opportunity for parent partner to contribute to NICU QI work

• Facilitating parent partner involvement with NICU quality improvement teams – CPBF provides informational tools and liaison support for parent partners participating in national QI outcome committees. CPBF also fosters a community of practice to support parent partners participating in QI at a hospital and national level, through the CPBF Parent-Partner Network.

• Ensuring family voice at the table – We advocate for parent participation in meetings, conferences, and decision-making spaces where outcomes and care models are being discussed.

• Supporting parent partner contributions at the EPIQ conference – at the annual EPIQ conference parent partners present their NICU lived experience and work through presentations, posters, and in breakout session teamwork. Many parent partners are new to participating in neonatal conferences and CPBF offers assistance in presentation and poster development and helping parent partners feel prepared for the conference experience.

• Co-designing spaces for parents within EPIQ – We helped EPIQ and CNN introduce parent breakouts and dedicated family-focused sessions at the conference.

• Advocating for structural change – Our work and advocacy contributed to the creation of a Family Engagement Committee within EPIQ/CNN, which will measure, study, and lead initiatives to improve family engagement—the first of its kind, and a direct result of years of collaboration.

Through this role, CPBF helps make sure that Quality Improvement in Canada is not done for families, but with families.

CPBF’s support for EPIQ is ongoing and active throughout the year. Our work includes:

• Sponsoring and supporting QI training for parents In advance of the annual EPIQ conference, CPBF sponsors EPIQ workshops for parent partners. In this training they learn QI fundamentals through hands-on learning in teams with other parent partners, working on real-life NICU problems relevant to families. This education is accompanied by peer mentorship and peer emotional support provided by CPBF, to facilitate parent partners’ psychological comfort as they draw on their lived experience to learn about QI.

• Bringing parent voices into EPIQ meetings and activities We continue to bring parents to EPIQ meetings and conferences, building a growing community of experienced parent partners who can contribute to projects, committees, and working groups.

• Defining parent priorities In 2023 and 2024, CPBF led two workshops at the EPIQ conference focused on defining parent priorities in neonatal care. These workshops sparked rich conversations and highlighted the need for stronger, ongoing family engagement in QI work.

• Establishing the Family Engagement Committee Those workshops and years of advocacy led to the creation of a Family Engagement Committee within EPIQ/CNN—the first committee of its kind in this space. This very special group is the result of collaboration between CPBF, CNN, and EPIQ, and exists to ensure that going forward, family engagement is a focus in QI work.

• Ongoing collaboration and advocacy Throughout the year, we continue working with EPIQ and CNN to strengthen family engagement, support researchers working with parent partners, and encourage more NICUs across Canada to take part in QI studies that include families as true partners.