Becker's Hospital Review is pleased to release the 2020 edition of its list, "50 patients safety experts to know."
The professionals included on this list are prominent advocates for patient safety. Individuals featured here are clinicians, advocacy group leaders, professors, researchers, administrators and healthcare providers. Many honorees have received industry awards, published articles and led initiatives to facilitate the reduction of patient harm in the healthcare setting.
The Becker's Hospital Review editorial team selected patient safety leaders for inclusion on the list based on nominations, current leadership positions and an examination of patient awards, publications and various achievements in the field of patient safety. Nominations were considered during the selection process.
Note: Leaders are presented in alphabetical order and could not pay for inclusion.
For questions or comments, contact Laura Dyrda at ldyrda@beckershealthcare.com
Jason Adelman, MD. Chief Patient Safety Officer, Associate Chief Quality Officer and Director of Patient Safety Research at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center (New York City). Dr. Adelman oversees a large team of clinicians, Lean engineers and quality and patient safety specialists working on hospital quality improvement efforts. He previously was patient safety officer of New York City-based Montefiore Medical Center, where he and his colleagues developed the Wrong-Patient Retract-and-Reorder Measure, which identifies EHR orders placed for the incorrect patient. In 2015, the measure became the first health IT safety measure endorsed by the National Quality Forum.
Wendy Berg, BSN, RN. Infection Preventionist at Children's Minnesota (Minneapolis). Ms. Berg co-chairs the central-line associated bloodstream infection prevention team at Children's Minnesota and leads the hospital's visitor guidelines program, which screens visitors for signs of illness year-round. Under her leadership, the hospital's 44-bed neonatal intensive care unit went more than 410 days without a central line-associated bloodstream infection. The hospital also achieved a 30 percent drop in central-line associated bloodstream infections in 2018 compared to the year prior.
David W. Baker, MD. Executive Vice President for Health Care Quality Evaluation at The Joint Commission (Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.). In 2015, Dr. Baker joined The Joint Commission, where he now oversees the development and implementation of all evidence-based protocols, safety measures and patient safety goals outlined in the organization's accreditation and certification programs. He is very active in national healthcare quality research and measurement, serving as chair of the American College of Physicians' performance measurement committee and a member of the Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement's measure implementation and evaluation committee.
Steve J. Bernstein, MD. Chief Quality Officer at Michigan Medicine (Ann Arbor). Along with his role as chief quality officer, Dr. Bernstein serves as a research scientist at the University of Michigan's Institute for Healthcare Policy & Innovation, where he focuses on such topics as care quality, patient outcomes and clinical decision-making. For the last decade, Dr. Bernstein has also overseen Michigan Medicine's Faculty Group Practice Quality Management Program, which monitors compliance with outpatient quality standards and develops chronic disease registries.
Leah Binder. President and CEO of the Leapfrog Group (Washington, D.C.). Ms. Binder has served as president and CEO of the Leapfrog Group since 2008. Four years after stepping into her role, Ms. Binder supervised the launch of the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades, which assesses more than 2,600 acute care hospitals nationwide for patient safety performance. She's also helped spur improvements to eliminate early elective deliveries, prevent central-line associated bloodstream infections and promoted the safe use of health technology through her work with the annual Leapfrog Hospital Survey.
Geoff Caplea, MD. Medical Director – Clinical Affairs for Allscripts. (Chicago). As chair of Allscripts' patient safety program, Dr. Caplea directs the company's health IT safety program and leads its public health emergency preparedness and response program. He has experience working with clients to maintain structured safety processes, particularly focusing on the relationship between reduced physician burnout and improved safety outcomes. He also spearheaded the company's commitment to the National Academy of Medicine's Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience. Dr. Caplea is a broad advocate of health IT safety and chaired the EHR Association's Patient Safety Workgroup in 2017.
Pascale Carayon, PhD. Procter & Gamble Bascom Professor in Total Quality, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Along with her faculty positions, Dr. Carayon also serves as director of UW Madison's Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement and leads the university's Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety. The multidisciplinary initiative was one of 18 patient safety developmental centers funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in 2014-15 and represented the only such center housed in a college of engineering. The Joint Commission and NQF recognized Dr. Carayon's work to improve patient safety through human factors engineering by naming her a 2015 recipient of the John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award.
Bobbie Carroll. Vice President of Quality at Children's Minnesota (St. Paul and Minneapolis). Under Ms. Carroll's leadership, Children's Minnesota created respect and dignity safety learning reports to help the quality team better understand threats to the organization's safety culture and identify areas of opportunity. In 2019, the hospital received more than 300 reports, nearly 200 of which were filed on behalf of patients and families. As a spinoff of this effort, Children's Minnesota is rolling out a strategic priority called "Amazing in Action," in which the hospital will partner with a consulting firm to identify and define the qualities that reinforce a positive safety culture. Ms. Carroll will lead this effort.
Mark R. Chassin, MD. President and CEO of The Joint Commission (Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.). Dr. Chassin oversees the Joint Commission's standards-setting and accrediting responsibilities and serves as president of its Center for Transforming Healthcare. Founded in 2008, the center works with hospitals and health systems to develop solutions to critical safety and quality issues, which it then shares with more than 20,000 healthcare organizations nationwide. Prior to joining The Joint Commission, Dr. Chassin was founding chairman of Mount Sinai School of Medicine's department of health policy and served as executive vice president for excellence in patient care at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, where he helped implement a nationally recognized quality improvement program.
Michael R. Cohen, RPh. President of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (Horsham, Pa.). In 1974, Dr. Cohen was involved in an insulin-related adverse event while working as a hospital pharmacist, which spurred his passion for medication safety. He founded the Institute for Safe Medication Practices 20 years later and launched the first of the organization's five safety alert newsletters in 1997. Along with his current role as president of the institute, Dr. Cohen also serves as a consultant to the FDA and chairperson of the International Medication Safety Network.
Jan Compton, BSN, RN. Chief Patient Safety Officer of Baylor Scott & White Health (Dallas). Ms. Compton has more than three decades of nursing experience at Baylor Scott & White and has held increasingly higher patient safety leadership roles at the system since 2008. She was named chief patient safety officer in 2014 and currently oversees all safety initiatives for the system's 50 hospitals and more than 800 care sites. Ms. Compton is also a member of the North Texas Association for Healthcare Quality and a member and past chair of the patient safety and quality committee for the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council.
Shannon Connor Phillips, MD. Chief Patient Experience Officer of Intermountain Healthcare (Salt Lake City). Dr. Phillips stepped into her current position at Intermountain Healthcare in 2017 and oversees all system efforts tied to improving patient safety, care quality and patient experience. She came to Intermountain after a 13-year tenure at Cleveland Clinic where she served as the system's inaugural patient safety officer and associate chief quality officer, among other positions. Dr. Phillips is a member of National Quality Forum's National Quality Partnership Leadership Consortium and an executive committee member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Council on Quality Improvement and Patient Safety.
Sara Cosgrove, MD. Director of Johns Hopkins Hospital Department of Antimicrobial Stewardship (Baltimore). Dr. Cosgrove heads the antimicrobial stewardship department at Johns Hopkins Hospital and serves as associate hospital epidemiologist. She also is a professor of medicine in the infectious disease division at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. At Johns Hopkins, her research interests include epidemiology and outcomes of antimicrobial resistance as well as epidemiology and management of Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia.
Christy Dempsey, RN, MSN, CNOR, CENP, FAAN. CNO of Press Ganey (Boston). As CNO of Press Ganey, a South Bend, Ind.-based company known for its widely used outpatient satisfaction survey, Ms. Dempsey focuses on helping healthcare organizations improve patient experience. She brings nearly 30 years of healthcare experience to the role. This includes leading clinical and operational consulting services for Press Ganey as well as serving as senior vice president for consulting services at PatientFlow Technology. She was also vice president for surgical and emergency services at Mercy St. John's, now Mercy Hospital St. Louis.
Renee Demski. Vice President of Quality for Johns Hopkins Hospital, Johns Hopkins Health System and Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality (Baltimore). Ms. Demski is a 29-year veteran of Johns Hopkins. In her current roles, she focuses on developing the strategic direction for quality and safety, among other responsibilities. She leads the strategic design and implementation of Johns Hopkins Medicine's national leader strategy, which aims to achieve national leader performance on publicly reported patient safety and quality measures.
Cynthia Deyling, MD. Chief Quality Officer of Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Deyling is a veteran of Cleveland Clinic, responsible for quality, regulatory and risk management activities for the academic medical center. Before becoming chief quality officer, she was vice president of regional medical affairs, quality and patient safety for Cleveland Clinic's regional hospitals and family health centers. Dr. Deyling is a member of the Ohio Hospital Association's Clinical Advisory Board, Vizient Chief Quality Officers Network Steering Committee and the Joint Commission CMO Corporate Council.
Ihab Dorotta, MD. Chief of Quality and Patient Safety at Loma Linda (Calif.) University Health. As chief of quality and patient safety, Dr. Dorotta is responsible for about 50 staff members at Loma Linda, including the regulatory specialist team, quality analysts and quality directors. The Leapfrog Group assigned "A" letter grades to Loma Linda University Medical Center and Loma Linda University Medical Center East Campus in fall 2018, spring 2019 and fall 2019 for patient safety performance.
Cathy E. Duquette, PhD, RN, MSN, BSN. Executive Vice President for Quality and Safety and Chief Nursing Executive at Lifespan (Providence, R.I.). Dr. Duquette is a 14-year veteran of Lifespan, where she serves as executive vice president for quality and safety and chief nursing executive. She also is interim CNO of Rhode Island Hospital and its Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence. Outside of her hospital roles, Dr. Duquette has served as an appraiser for the Magnet Recognition Program, which recognizes nursing excellence, since 2006.
Derek Feeley. President and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (Boston). Mr. Feeley helms the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, which focuses on improvement science and patient safety. Before becoming CEO, he was executive vice president of the institute from 2013 to 2015. His experience goes beyond the U.S., having previously served as principal adviser to the Scottish government on health and other issues.
Ruth Flint. Vice President of Care Services and CNO of St. Joseph Medical Center (Tacoma, Wash.). In her roles, Ms. Flint is responsible for the overall patient care for St. Joseph Medical Center, the flagship hospital of Tacoma-based CHI Franciscan. She oversees about 1,400 employees, patient care services and various units. Under Ms. Flint's leadership, St. Joseph Medical Center earned the 2019 Top Teaching Hospital award by Leapfrog Group and received an "A" grade from Leapfrog in fall 2019 for patient safety performance.
Karen Frush, MD. Chief Quality Officer of Stanford Health Care (Palo Alto, Calif.). Dr. Frush serves as chief quality officer for Stanford Health Care, an internationally renowned health system with locations throughout the Bay area. She also is a clinical professor in emergency medicine at Stanford Medicine. She is a trained pediatric emergency medicine physician.
Linda Groah, MSN, RN, CNOR. Executive Director and CEO of the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (Denver). Ms. Groah has helmed the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses for 13 years. She is a veteran perioperative nursing executive, previously serving as COO of Kaiser Foundation Hospital in San Francisco and nurse executive for Kaiser Foundation Hospital-San Francisco. Ms. Groah also was director of nursing OR-PACU-Surgery Center at the University of California San Francisco Hospitals and Clinics and operating room director at the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon.
Bruce Hall, MD, PhD. Vice President and Chief Quality Officer of BJC HealthCare (St. Louis). Dr. Hall leads the Clinical Advisory Group for the BJC Center for Clinical Excellence in addition to his other roles at BJC HealthCare. His responsibilities include physician engagement strategies as well as health system efforts to successfully participate in alternative payment and episode reimbursement. Dr. Hall is also a professor of surgery in the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and serves as a guest lecturer for Washington University's Olin Business School in St. Louis.
Christopher Hermann, PhD. Founder and CEO of Clean Hands – Safe Hands (Atlanta). Dr. Hermann founded Clean Hands to address poor hand hygiene and in turn reduce hospital-acquired infections. The company offers medical technology to meet the hand hygiene needs of clinicians in healthcare organizations. In the last 10 years, Dr. Hermann and his team have secured and executed more than $3.2 million in state and federal research grants to develop such technology. In the most recent 10 hospital installations of Clean Hands technology, hospital-acquired infections have dropped by 61.4 percent on average.
James Hoffman, PharmD. Chief Patient Safety Officer and Associate Member of Pharmaceutical Sciences at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (Memphis, Tenn.). Dr. Hoffman has served as chief patient safety officer of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital since 2015 and as associate member of pharmaceutical services since 2011. Under his leadership, the hospital has developed and implemented new event detection systems. He is a member of the international Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium and co-leads its Informatics Work Group, which is focused on increasing the use of pharmacogenetics by promoting clinical practice guidelines in the clinic setting. In 2016, Dr. Hoffman won the American Pharmacists Association's Foundation Pinnacle Award.
Regina Hoffman, RN. Executive Director of Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority (Harrisburg). Ms. Hoffman became executive director of the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority, an independent state agency, in 2016. She is responsible for increasing event reporting through the agency's patient safety reporting system and improving safety at 1,300 healthcare institutions across Pennsylvania. During her tenure, the agency has educated more than 34,500 professionals via conferences, webinars and on-site health facility trainings. She serves as editor-in-chief of Patient Safety, the organization's open-access, peer-reviewed journal, and as the subcommittee co-chair on learning systems for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement/Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's National Steering Committee on Patient Safety.
Mark Jarrett, MD. Senior Vice President, Chief Quality Officer and Deputy CMO at Northwell Health (New Hyde Park, N.Y.). As chief quality officer and deputy CMO of Northwell Health, Dr. Jarrett oversees care quality and patient safety initiatives across 23 hospitals and nearly 800 outpatient facilities. Under his leadership, Northwell piloted the use of black-box technology in its operating rooms to collect more information during surgeries — an industry first. In addition to his administrative roles at Northwell, he is a professor of medicine at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell in Hempstead, N.Y.
Leslie Jurecko, MD. Vice President for Quality, Safety and Experience at Spectrum Health (Grand Rapids, Mich.). In addition to serving as vice president for quality, safety and experience at the 14-hospital Spectrum Health, Dr. Jurecko is the physician lead for the organization's caregiver wellness initiative. She spearheaded the creation of 18 patient and family advisory committees, including an adolescent committee and a weekly meeting with system leaders to discuss safety events. She serves on Solutions for Patient Safety's national learning committee and on the Michigan Health and Hospital Association's Physicians in Healthcare Leadership Council.
George Ralls, MD. Vice President and System Chief Quality Officer at Orlando (Fla.) Health. Dr. Ralls is vice president and system chief quality officer of Orlando Health, prior to which he was chief quality officer for the system's Orlando Regional Medical Center. He previously worked as deputy county administrator and director of health and public safety for Orange County, Fla. He is a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians, and in 2007, he collaborated with Orlando Health's graduate medical education team to create Florida's first emergency medical services physician fellowship.
Clifford Ko, MD. Director of the American College of Surgeons' Division of Research and Optimal Patient Care. As director of the division of research and optimal patient care at the American College of Surgeons, Dr. Ko oversees all the organization's quality improvement programs, including the cancer accreditation program and the trauma verification program. He is also director of the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program, an outcomes-based program that measures surgical care quality with the goal of improving it. Dr. Ko is the Robert and Kelly Day Professor of Surgery at University of California Los Angeles and has received millions of dollars in grant funding to study quality of care from several sources, including the National Institutes of Health and the CDC.
Stephen Lawless, MD. Senior Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer at Nemours Children's Health System (Jacksonville, Fla.). Dr. Lawless is responsible for quality, safety, research, academic affairs and clinical risk management at Nemours Children's Health System as its chief clinical officer. He spearheaded the first collaboration between the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Children's Hospital Association and the American Board of Pediatrics to develop national pediatric quality and safety measures, which were later adopted by The Joint Commission ORYX initiative with the goal of integrating performance measurement data into the accreditation process. Dr. Lawless also represents Nemours with the National Quality Forum.
Gerald Maccioli, MD. Chief Quality Officer of Envision Healthcare (Nashville, Tenn.). Dr. Maccioli served as director of the North Carolina Society of Anesthesiologists before joining physician-led medical group Sheridan Healthcare, which became Envision Healthcare in 2015 through a merger with other physician organizations. An anesthesiologist and critical care medicine physician, he previously served as a member of the American Medical Association's quality improvement advisory committee and its committee on professional satisfaction and practice sustainability. He was also chairman of the AMA's committee of innovators.
Wilhelmina Manzano, RN. Senior Vice President, Chief Nursing Executive and Chief Quality Officer of NewYork-Presbyterian (New York City). Ms. Manzano oversees the department of nursing at NewYork-Presbyterian and is responsible for performance improvement, quality, patient safety, and infection prevention and control. Ms. Manzano joined NewYork-Presbyterian in 1998 and has experience as COO of NYP Allen Hospital. She also has previous experience in leadership roles at New York City-based Mount Sinai Medical Center and Boston-based Beth Israel Medical Center.
Julie Marhalik-Helms, BSN, RN. Vice President of Quality Improvement of North American Partners in Anesthesia (Melville, N.Y.). Ms. Marhalik-Helms is vice president of quality improvement for NAPA, overseeing several areas related to quality and safety, including compliance, case reviews and quality improvement initiatives in the 11 states where NAPA operates. In 2019, she led the creation of the NAPA Anesthesia Patient Safety Institute, which was designated as one of 89 patient safety organizations in the U.S. by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. She now directs the institute. For seven years, she has led the team that organizes the annual "Quality Palooza," a continuing medical education event focused on providing clinical and legal information for anesthesiologists.
David Mayer, MD. Executive Director of the MedStar Health Institute for Quality and Safety (Columbia, Md.). Dr. Mayer is the executive director of the MedStar Health Institute for Quality and Safety, a MedStar Health initiative to foster a culture of safety across the health system and invest in quality and safety research, education, innovation, patient advocacy and evidence-based care. Dr. Mayer previously served as vice president of quality and safety for MedStar Health for more than six years. He founded and has led the Annual Telluride Interdisciplinary Patient Safety Roundtable and co-produced a patient safety educational film series. In 2017, he received the Humanitarian Award from the Patient Safety Movement Foundation.
James Merlino, MD. Chief Clinical Transformation Officer of Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Merlino became the first chief transformation officer of Cleveland Clinic in December 2019. In his role at Cleveland Clinic, he oversees the offices of patient experience, enterprise quality and safety and continuous improvement. Before joining the organization, he was chief transformation officer at Press Ganey, where he spearheaded a new organizational strategy to widen the definition of patient experience to include safe, high-quality and patient-centered care built on an engaged and aligned healthcare culture.
George Mills. Director of Technical Operations, Healthcare Solutions at JLL (Chicago). In his role at JLL, Mr. Mills oversees more than 1,500 professionals with several focus areas, including healthcare safety, quality and compliance, and supply chain management. He has spent 32 years in the healthcare industry, previously working as director of the department of engineering at The Joint Commission, where he helped educate surveyors and accredited organizations on standards. He authored The Joint Commission/National Fire Protection Association's "Life Safety Book for Health Care Organizations." Mr. Mills is a board member for the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation.
Rustin Morse, MD. Senior Vice President of Quality and Safety and Chief Quality Officer at Children's Health (Dallas). In addition to serving as senior vice president of quality and safety and chief quality officer at Children's Health, Dr. Morse is interim chief clinical officer of the 601-bed organization. During his time at Children's Health, Dr. Morse has developed an infrastructure and processes to lower preventable harm, including daily safety briefings and unit-based "safety cards" to display safety information for staff and patient visitors. He serves as co-chair of the Children's Hospital Association of Texas' quality and patient safety committee. In 2018, The Leapfrog Group named two Children's Health hospitals among the top children's hospitals for excellence in patient safety and quality.
Elizabeth Mort, MD. Senior Vice President of Quality and Safety and Chief Quality Officer of Massachusetts General Hospital/Massachusetts General Physicians Organization (Boston). Dr. Mort is a primary care physician with special interests in women's health and disease management. She is responsible for quality and safety across a range of initiatives at Massachusetts General Hospital, ranked the No. 2 hospital in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Dr. Mort is currently an assistant professor at Boston-based Harvard Medical School in the departments of medicine and healthcare policy.
David Nash, MD. Founding Dean Emeritus of the Jefferson College of Population Health (Philadelphia). Dr. Nash is internationally recognized for his efforts in physician leadership development, care quality improvement and public accountability for outcomes. An internist by training, he is a principal faculty member for quality-of-care programming with the American Association for Physician Leadership. Dr. Nash has also authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles, edited 25 books and is currently the editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Medical Quality, Population Health Management and American Health and Drug Benefits.
Margaret O'Kane. Founder and President of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (Washington, D.C.). Ms. O'Kane founded the National Committee for Quality Assurance nearly 30 years ago and is today a member of its 12-person leadership team. She is also a member of the National Academy of Medicine and chairman of the board of the nonprofit Healthwise. Ms. O'Kane earned a master's degree in health administration and planning from Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University, where she received the Distinguished Alumnus Award.
Barbara Pelletreau, RN. Senior Vice President of Patient Safety at Dignity Health (San Francisco). Ms. Pelletreau leads patient safety processes across Dignity Health, which merged with Catholic Health Initiatives to form CommonSpirit Health in 2019. Ms. Pelletreau has guided the 142-hospital network in large-scale change, implementing new processes across more than 700 care sites in 21 states. After adopting the Communication and Optimal Resolution process, along with the Patient Safety Movement Foundation's Actionable Patient Safety Solutions, the system reduced Clostridium difficile infections by 34 percent.
Peter Pronovost, MD, PhD. Chief Clinical Transformation Officer of University Hospitals (Cleveland). Dr. Pronovost is widely recognized for his use of checklists to reduce central venous catheter-related bloodstream infections, saving thousands of lives. He serves as an adviser to the World Health Organization's World Alliance for Patient Safety and regularly addresses Congress about patient safety issues. Dr. Pronovost has authored over 800 papers and frequently writes articles for The Wall Street Journal and U.S. News & World Report.
Robert Redfield, MD. Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta). Dr. Redfield is the 18th director of the CDC and administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. For more than 30 years, he has led clinical research and clinical care of chronic viral infections and infectious diseases, including HIV. Dr. Redfield also served in the military for 20 years and co-founded the Institute of Human Virology at College Park-based University of Maryland.
Anne Schuchat, MD. Acting Principal Deputy Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta). Dr. Schuchat was director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases from 2006-15 and has twice served as acting director of the CDC. Dr. Schuchat played a crucial role in the CDC emergency responses to the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, the 2003 SARS outbreak in Beijing and the 2001 anthrax attacks. After 30 years of service, Dr. Schuchat retired from the Commissioned Corps of the United States Public Health Service at the rank of rear admiral in 2018.
Rahul Shah, MD. Vice President and Chief Quality and Safety Officer at Children's National Health System (Washington, D.C.). Dr. Shah is responsible for patient safety and quality of care across the Children's National Health System, overseeing nearly two dozen medical unit directors and developing training policies for 7,000 employees. Under his leadership, Children's National has been recognized as a Leapfrog Top Children's Hospital 10 times — more than any other pediatric hospital. Dr. Shah is also vice president of medical affairs at Children's National Health, a practicing pediatric otolaryngology surgeon and a professor at Washington, D.C.-based George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Jeffrey Shapiro, MD. Director of the Mednax High-Reliability Organization Patient Safety Initiative (Atlanta). Dr. Shapiro recently led the HRO program's largest rollout at White Plains (N.Y.) Hospital, implementing the patient safety initiative in nine clinical divisions for hundreds of providers. Under Dr. Shapiro's guidance, 32 anesthesia practices have implemented the HRO program at their facility or are in the process of doing so. Dr. Shapiro also helped develop Mednax's Clinical Safety App, which lets clinicians report safety concerns and receive incident updates.
Robert Wachter, MD. Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Wachter has authored six books and almost 300 articles on health policy, quality, patient safety and health IT. His book Understanding Patient Safety is the world's best-selling safety primer, now in its third edition. Dr. Wachter has served on several healthcare advisory boards, including one for Google, and continues to treat patients at UCSF Medical Center.
Stephen Weber, MD. Vice President of Clinical Effectiveness and CMO of University of Chicago Medicine. Dr. Weber is an infection control expert specializing in antimicrobial-resistant infections in vulnerable populations, particularly geriatric patients. He has authored several studies about hospital-acquired infection management and prevention with a focus on infections caused by multidrug-resistant organisms. Dr. Weber's interests include public reporting and pay-for-performance programs.
Eric Wei, MD. Vice President and Chief Quality Officer of NYC Health + Hospitals (New York City). Dr. Wei leads care quality at NYC Health + Hospitals, the largest public healthcare system in the nation, treating more than a million New Yorkers every year across more than 70 locations. He is an emergency medicine specialist and a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Academy of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Wei is Lean Healthcare certified through the School of Engineering at Ann Arbor-based University of Michigan, is Six Sigma Black Belt certified through Villanova (Pa.) University, completed the Patient Safety Executive Training at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston, and is a TeamSTEPPS Master Trainer.