How You Can Harness the Magnify Tool
By Erin Das, Practice Lead, Global Treehouse
One of my favourite parts of my role as Practice Lead is supporting teams to use the Magnify Tool to transform their practices. The Magnify Tool is free and readily available in four languages, co-created by and for children’s palliative care providers. These conversations happen across time zones, internet connections (sometimes unstable) and very different health systems — but they almost always start the same way: “We’re interested… but we’re not sure where to start.”
If that’s you, then this article is for you. Let me say this first: that’s exactly where you should start. The Magnify Tool wasn’t designed for teams that have everything figured out. It was designed for teams who care deeply, are doing a lot with limited resources and want to make their work more visible, intentional and sustainable.
Let me share what this looks like in real life.
Jumping In to Start
In one recent call with a small children’s palliative care team in the Asia I started the way I often do: “First of all — congratulations. You’re the champion. You’re the one who said yes to this.” It’s a young program, seeing about 10–15 children a month in a public hospital, with no formal insurance coverage for palliative care and fewer than 100 specialists nationwide.
Their first question wasn’t about metrics. It was about feasibility. “Can we just focus on two or three areas for now?” My answer is always yes. In fact, we encourage you: Where do you have the biggest needs or where do you have traction? Prioritizing on a few data points is essential to seeing the ability to complete a focused change project.
The Magnify Tool has 10 focus areas and over 100 metrics — not so you do everything, but so you can choose wisely to narrow where you can take action. These metrics cover a wide range of data and information points that are within children’s palliative care and the metrics look at not only operational aspects but also educational and research points as well.
We talked about service utilisation:
How many referrals are new?
When do children arrive in their illness?
How often are appointments missed?
I suggested something simple: “Take one hour with your team in the next few weeks. Pick one section. Talk about what you already know — and what you don’t.”
Most teams see the most impact by jumping right into action — committing together to one achievable quality improvement step.
“As we talked, the tool became less of a checklist and more of a mirror.”
Breaking Down Options
A very different conversation happened with Canuck Place in Canada — a mature service with strong data systems and an upcoming transition to an electronic medical record.
Early in the conversation, someone shared something I hear often: ““The Magnify Tool felt overwhelming at first — we weren’t sure where to start as we have so many aspects of our program that could be explored.” But then something shifted.
This team started to think about how they could use the tool to focus data collection on psychosocial care and family well-being — using the tool created space for the right questions:
How do we understand family well-being across our care teams?
Are we communicating and tracking consistently in our teams about how families are coping including their capacity, broadening our focus beyond the patient?
What data would actually help us improve care, not just report on it?
One team member described the Magnify Tool perfectly: “It’s almost like a mini needs assessment or gap analysis — it sets up a quality improvement project.” That’s exactly the point. The Magnify Tool isn’t about adding work. It’s about focusing on the work you’re already doing.
Ensuring Action
Another powerful example comes from Romania, where a hospice team wanted to strengthen referral pathways and partner understanding of pediatric palliative care. Their instinct was to start with a survey — and we spent most of the conversation not on the questions themselves, but on what would happen after.
We discussed: “Any time you ask for feedback, you have to be ready to act on it. Otherwise, people stop answering.”
We talked about:
Keeping surveys simple to keep referral partners engaged
Allowing people to explain why they answered “no” to ensure better understanding of the referral partner’s concerns?
Using results to guide a focused follow-up project — maybe training, maybe targeted outreach
“Data only matters when it leads to relationship-building and action.”
What I’ve Learned Watching Teams Use the Magnify Tool
Across all these conversations — whether teams are new, well-established, under-resourced or highly specialised — a few patterns always hold true:
Start with one or two things that matter.
The most powerful work happens in team discussions.
The tool works best when the team narrows down to one concrete action.
And most importantly: You’re not doing this alone.
The Magnify Tool is a framework — but the real work happens in conversations, decisions and small commitments teams make together. Here’s a guide - and email us anytime at resource@globaltreehouse.foundation to get connected to the worldwide Magnify Tool WhatsApp community or reach out as you need support.