
IHI Open School Single-Course Purchases
Flexibility for Your Learning Journey
Whether you're a user of the student IHI Open School, an experienced Full Access Subscriber looking for new opportunities to study higher level concepts, or trying out the IHI Open School for the first time, our single-course purchases are designed to augment your learning journey and provide the flexibility to learn your way.
Earn Continuing Education Credits
IHI Open School single-course purchases are offered with the option to earn Continuing Education credits in medicine, nursing, social work, and pharmacy. Select courses can be purchased with earnable credits for $20 or without credits for $10*.
Review each course's description for full credit information and click here to learn more about Continuing Education credits.
How to Purchase
1. Click the expand icon (+) on the course you would like to purchase.
2. Choose the version of the course with Continuing Education credits or without Continuing Education credits and click on the appropriate link.
3. Complete the registration and payment process. An order confirmation email and welcome email will be sent to you. Make sure to monitor your spam folder for the emails.
4. Follow the instructions on your welcome email to access the course in the IHI Education Platform.
Important note: if you are a paid Full Access Subscriber or Patient Safety Catalog Subscriber, some of these courses may already be included in your subscription.
For help, go to: ihi.org/help
*The non-CE offering of Decarbonizing Care 101: Climate and Health is available for free until September 1, 2025, thanks to support from the Commonwealth Fund.
Available Single-Course Purchases
Purchasing Options
- $20 USD: Contextualizing Care 101: Contextualizing Care for the Clinician (CE Credits)
- $10 USD: Contextualizing Care 101: Contextualizing Care for the Clinician (No CE Credits)
Overview
Contextualizing care, a clinical competency, is the process of adapting care to the circumstances and behavior of individual patients. The failure to do so, when it results in a suboptimal plan of care, is a contextual error. Contextual errors, which are common and often overlooked, adversely affect health care outcomes, and they contribute to overuse and misuse of medical services.
Through a series of five modules, you will acquire the knowledge, skills, and insight to systematically contextualize care during the medical encounter. You will also learn about the research evidence that contextualizing care has a measurable impact on patient outcomes and costs, and that clinicians improve with the instruction and feedback you will receive here. Finally, the course concludes by exploring the interpersonal dimensions of clinicians that facilitate contextualization of care.
In Module 1, you will learn how to apply the four-step framework for contextualizing care during a clinical encounter.
In Module 2, you will learn how research on contextualization of care is conducted and what it’s shown.
In Module 3, you will practice applying contextualization of care strategies to simulated cases.
In Module 4, you will learn to apply contextualization of care skills to mitigate effects of social determinants of health on adverse patient outcomes.
In Module 5, you will explore through self-reflection the personal characteristics of the clinician that facilitate contextualization of care.
Modules
Module 1: Basic Concepts
Module 2: The Research Evidence for Contextualizing Care
Module 3: Basic Skills Building and Assessment
Module 4: Applying Skills to Mitigate Social Determinants of Health
Module 5: Interpersonal qualities of clinicians who contextualize care
Course Objectives
After completing this course, you will be able to:
Describe key terms and concepts essential to contextualizing care during a clinical encounter.
Apply key terms and concepts to clinical scenarios to contextualize care and avoid contextual errors.
Summarize research evidence on the impact of contextual errors and interventions to prevent them on health care service utilization and patient outcomes.
Characterize both the opportunities and limits of contextualized care planning to mitigate the adverse effects of social risk factors during the clinical encounter.
Theorize about the interpersonal qualities of clinicians who contextualize care.
Continuing Education

In support of improving patient care, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement designates this internet enduring activity for a maximum of 3 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. This activity may also be applicable for other professions that accept AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™.
This activity is approved to award 3 credit(s) toward Certified Professional in Patient Safety (CPPS) recertification.
Planning Committee
Saul Weiner, MD, Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Medical Education, University of Illinois at Chicago.
Disclosure: None of the planners, presenters, or staff for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s) to disclose with ineligible companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.