Salzburg Global Seminar Session 565—‘Better Health Care: how do we learn about improvement?’

A fundamental question for the field of healthcare improvement is the extent to which the results achieved can be attributed to the changes that were implemented and whether or not these changes are generalizable. Answering these questions is particularly challenging because the healthcare context is complex, and the interventions themselves tend to be complex and multi-dimensional. The Salzburg Global Seminar Session 565—‘Better Health Care: How do we learn about improvement?’ was convened to address questions of attribution, generalizability and rigor, and to think through how to approach these concerns in the field of quality improvement. The Salzburg Global Seminar Session 565 brought together 61 leaders in improvement from 22 countries, including researchers, evaluators and improvers. The primary conclusion that resulted from the session was the need for evaluation to be embedded as an integral part of the improvement. We have invited participants of the seminar to contribute to writing this supplement, which consists of eight articles reflecting insights and learning from the Salzburg Global Seminar. This editorial serves as an introduction to the supplement. The supplement explains results and insights from Salzburg Global Seminar Session 565.