Celebrating 50 Years of Leadership. Shaping What’s Next.
July 21, 2026Share:
This year, our NAHQ community reaches an extraordinary milestone—50 years of advancing healthcare quality. For five decades, we’ve championed the professionals who improve care, elevate patient safety, and strengthen healthcare organizations. Together, we’ve helped shape a profession and discipline that has become indispensable to healthcare’s future.
As we celebrate where we’ve been, we must also ask an equally important question: Where do we go next?
That answer begins at NAHQ next.
It’s a conversation I’ve been advancing in other settings as well. A few months ago, during an Oxford Open Grand Rounds lecture, I spoke about the quality improvement gap and the question of where we go from here. Despite two decades of effort, organizational, structural, and cultural barriers still limit the impact of improvement efforts.
Healthcare is evolving at an unprecedented pace. Financial pressures continue to challenge organizations. Artificial intelligence is transforming how we work. Workforce expectations are shifting, and leaders are increasingly expected to influence strategy, not simply measure outcomes.
This year’s NAHQ next is designed to help you navigate today’s healthcare challenges.
Throughout the conference, you’ll explore practical strategies to navigate healthcare’s most pressing challenges, from financial realities and workforce transformation to value-based care and emerging technologies. Each session is designed to move beyond theory, providing actionable insights you can apply immediately within your organization.
As we commemorate our 50th anniversary, there’s no better reminder that the strength of our discipline has always been its willingness to evolve. The same spirit that guided leaders who work in healthcare quality over the past five decades continues today through every conversation, every educational session, and every connection made at NAHQ next.
You’ll also have opportunities to earn continuing education credits while building competencies aligned with the NAHQ Healthcare Quality Competency Framework™, the trusted industry standard for developing the knowledge and skills healthcare organizations need now and into the future.
Most importantly, NAHQ next brings together the people who understand your work best. It’s where thousands of professionals who work in healthcare quality gather to exchange ideas, challenge one another’s thinking, celebrate successes, and return to the day-to-day inspired to make an even greater impact.
Our 50th anniversary isn’t simply a celebration of our history. It’s a celebration of you, the professionals whose leadership has defined the healthcare quality discipline for half a century, and an investment in strengthening and advancing the discipline for the next 50 years.
I hope you’ll join us as we honor our legacy, celebrate our community, and prepare for what’s ahead.
Register for NAHQ next and be part of the conference that celebrates 50 years of excellence while equipping healthcare professionals who work in quality to lead the future.
April Taylor, FACHE, CMQ/OE, CLSSBB, CPPS, CPHQ
NAHQ President
There is a roadmap to healthcare Quality excellence. NAHQ can help you follow it.
The NAHQ Healthcare Quality Competency Framework™ serves as the industry-standard, defining the Quality Safety competencies, skills and behaviors required to advance Quality & Safety excellence across the healthcare continuum.
This expert-created, data-informed framework is continuously validated and updated by NAHQ to ensure it provides the most up-to-date information, guiding professionals, organizations, and the healthcare industry to create a competent, coordinated workforce prepared to deliver healthcare excellence.
