Keynote Speakers

Dr. Bates is an internationally renowned expert in patient safety, using information technology to improve care, quality-of-care, cost-effectiveness, and outcomes assessment in medical practice. He is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and a Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health, where he co-directs the Program in Clinical Effectiveness. He directs the Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.  He served as external program lead for research in the World Health Organization’s Global Alliance for Patient Safety and is the immediate past president of the International Society for Quality in Healthcare (ISQua) and the editor of the Journal of Patient Safety.

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Dr. Bates has been elected to the Institute of Medicine, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians and the American College of Medical Informatics, and was chairman of the Board of the American Medical Informatics Association. He has published over 700 peer-reviewed papers which have been cited over 100,000 times; he has an h-index of 147, which ranks him among the 400 most cited biomedical researchers of any type.

Thomas Lee, MD

Chief Medical Officer of Press Ganey, Professor of Health Policy Management Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Dr. Thomas Lee is an internist and cardiologist who practices at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. He is a Professor of Medicine, part time, at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health. He currently serves as Chief Medical Officer to Press Ganey, Inc. Prior to joining Press Ganey in 2013, Dr. Lee was the Network President for Partners Healthcare System, the integrated delivery system founded by Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospitals in 1994. Dr. Lee has performed clinical epidemiological research leading to more than 300 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and three books.

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Dr. Lee is a member of the Editorial Board of The New England Journal of Medicine, the Board of Directors of Geisinger Health System, the Board of Directors of Health Leads; the Board of Overseers of Weill Cornell Medical College; the Special Medical Advisory Group (SMAG) of the Veterans Administration; and the Panel of Health Advisors of the Congressional Budget Office. He received his BA from Harvard College (1975) and his MD from Cornell University Medical College (1979), and then trained in internal medicine and then cardiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He received a MSc in Epidemiology from Harvard School of Public Health in 1987.

 

Patricia McGaffigan RN, MS, CPPS

Vice President, Safety Programs President, Certification Board for Professionals in Patient Safety

Patricia A. McGaffigan, RN, MS, CPPS is Vice President, Patient Safety Programs, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), and President, Certification Board for Professionals in Patient Safety. Prior to the merger with IHI, Patricia served as COO and Senior VP of Programs at the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) and Interim President.   Patricia’s diverse experience includes clinical practice, academia, and a range of leadership, education, and marketing roles for start-up and established medical device companies with missions to improve patient safety.  Patricia is a Certified Professional in Patient Safety (CPPS), a graduate of the AHA-NPSF Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship Program, and a member of the American Society for Professionals in Patient Safety.

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Patricia serves on a wide range of national committees related to safety, including the Joint Commission National Patient Safety Committee, an Advisor to the Coalition to Improve Diagnosis, and is a member of the Board of Directors for Medically Induced Trauma Support Services. She has served on the American Nurses Association Moral Resilience Professional Issues Panel Steering Committee, was awarded the distinguished Lifetime Member Award from the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, and was inducted into Sigma Theta Tau as an undergraduate nursing student. Patricia received her BS with a major in Nursing from Boston College, and her MS with a major in Nursing from Boston University.

Stephanie Mercado, CAE, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director NAHQ

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Stephanie Mercado is a leader in healthcare association management and advancing healthcare professions. Since joining NAHQ in 2013, CPHQ certificants and NAHQ members have increased by more than 50%. Stephanie has raised NAHQ’s prominence and value with the introduction of industry elevating initiatives such as the award-winning HQ Essentials and the National Healthcare Quality Summit.  Stephanie has deep knowledge of healthcare issues gained from 18 years on both the front line and in executive association leadership. She has built healthcare competencies and medical curriculum models, certifications, professional development and training programs, and led advocacy efforts for societies and professions. Stephanie is a sought-after expert on healthcare association management and healthcare quality. She currently serves on the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s National Steering Committee for Patient Safety, the Association Forum Healthcare Collaborative Steering Committee, and more. Recently, she was selected as a recipient of the Outstanding Nonprofit Leader Award from .orgCommunity

Course Faculty

Bonnie Blanchfield, CPA, SM, Sc.D,  Lead Process Improvement Consultant, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

 

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Dr. Blanchfield’s 35+ year career started in public accounting at KPMG and corporate management before deciding to redirect her career to health care. Bonnie conducts policy relevant research and program evaluation looking at health care costs, care redesign, the volume to value transition and patient safety. She has been a Senior Research Scientist at the MGH Institute for Technology Assessment and MGH Mongan Institute for Health Policy, the Research Director at Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program and a Researcher Scientist at the Center for Health Affairs at Project Hope. Bonnie has served as acting CFO for several small companies including Iora Health and is currently advising a health care venture capital fund and is a consultant for Google’s Verily Life Sciences.

Bonnie earned a BBA from Siena College and an SM and Sc.D. in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard School of Public Health.

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Dr. Giles Boland is the Philip H. Cook Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School and the Chair of Radiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

 

Dr. Boland received his medical degree at the London Hospital Medical College, London University, and completed his residency at Guy’s Hospital, London. In 1992 he began his fellowship in Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital, and joined the faculty in 1994 before moving to BWH as Chair of Radiology in 2016.

 

As Chair of Radiology, Dr. Boland is responsible for a department that performs and interprets approximately 800,000 imaging exams per year includes 120 attending physicians, a large Research department, 100 physician trainees and a large complement of technologists, nurses and support personnel. His current focus is on the delivery of cost-effective patient outcomes, which drives his interests to include practice and workflow re-design and management,quality and safety, leadership, information technology (especially those that improve outcomes), the patient experience, wellness and development of new markets. He has written numerous peer-reviewed articles on these topics and has conducted over 100 international presentations on these issues. As a current practicing radiologist, his interests lie in Abdominal Imaging. He is the past president of the Society of Abdominal Radiology.

James Brink, MD, Radiologist-in-Chief at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Juan M. Taveras Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School

 

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James Brink, MD earned a BS degree in Electrical Engineering at Purdue University and an MD at Indiana University before completing his residency and fellowship at MGH in 1990. He joined the faculty at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University School of Medicine where he rose to the rank of Associate Professor prior to joining the faculty at Yale University in 1997. Dr. Brink served as Chair of the Yale Department of Diagnostic Radiology from 2006 to 2013 prior to returning to MGH as Radiologist-in-Chief. Dr. Brink is Fellow of the Society for Computed Body Tomography/Magnetic Resonance, Fellow of the American College of Radiology, Past-President of the American Roentgen Ray Society, and Past-President of the American College of Radiology.  For the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, Dr. Brink serves as Vice-Chair of the Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board. For the International Society for Strategic Studies in Radiology, Dr. Brink serves as Secretary. Dr. Brink is a recipient of the American Roentgen Ray Society’s Gold Medal and an honorary member of the European Society of Radiology, the Japanese Radiological Society, the Italian Society of Medical Radiology, the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, and the International Organization for Medical Physics. Dr. Brink has broad experience in medical imaging, including the utilization and management of imaging resources, with specific interest and expertise in issues related to the monitoring and control of medical radiation exposure.

Jennifer C. Broder, MD, Assistant Professor of Radiology, Tufts Medical School; Vice Chair for Quality and Safety Department of Radiology Lahey Hospital and Medical Center

 

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Jennifer Broder, MD is Vice Chair of Quality and Safety at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center Department of Radiology in Burlington, MA and an Assistant Professor of Radiology at Tufts Medical School. She received her B.A. from University of Pennsylvania in History and Sociology of Science. Prior to matriculating at Harvard Medical School, she worked for several years in public health which gave her insight into the benefits of incorporating systematic efforts to analyze and prevent error. After completing both her diagnostic radiology residency and abdominal imaging fellowship at Boston University, she joined the faculty at Lahey, where she has worked to build a culture of safety in her department, emphasizing peer learning, just culture, and technologist engagement. In addition to her volunteer roles in quality and safety with national professional societies and as a member of the Executive Committee of the Massachusetts Radiologic Society, she is a founding Co-Chair of the Massachusetts Radiology Quality and Safety Council and serves on the Massachusetts Governor’s Advisory Commission on Radiologic Technologists.

Craig A. Bunnell, MD, MPH, MBA, Chief Medical Officer, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Harvard Medical School Faculty

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Craig A. Bunnell, MD, MPH, MBA is the Chief Medical Officer of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. In this role, Dr. Bunnell oversees the delivery of adult and pediatric clinical services at Dana-Farber’s main campus, satellite sites and physician practices. Under Dr. Bunnell’s leadership, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has become a leader in the implementation of technology to improve patient flow, operational efficiency and patient access. In 2010, Dr. Bunnell and Dr. Anne Gross were named the Boston Business Journal’s Champions in Healthcare for Industry Innovation for the first-in-oncology implementation of Team Training to reduce medical errors, enhance clinical practice efficiency and improve patient and provider satisfaction. Dr. Bunnell is also a medical oncologist who cares for patients with breast cancer in the Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He has been the principal investigator of several institutional and multicenter clinical trials and serves on several editorial boards. Dr. Bunnell is a Dana-Farber Institute Physician, an Associate Physician at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School. Dr. Bunnell received his bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from Colorado College. He earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and his Master in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. He earned his Master in Business Administration from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Bunnell completed his internship, residency and fellowship in hematology and oncology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he also served as Chief Medical Resident.

Sree Chaguturu, MD, Vice President, Center for Population Health, Partners HealthCare; Harvard Medical School Faculty

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Sree Chaguturu, MD is Vice President of Population Health Management at Partners HealthCare. Dr. Chaguturu is part of the leadership team focused on insuring that Partners meets its aspirations of improving quality and reducing costs for the populations they serve. He provides oversight to the system’s population health management programs as well as for Partners’ self-insured health plan, which provides health benefits for more than 90,000 beneficiaries.

Prior to joining Partners, Dr. Chaguturu was a healthcare consultant at McKinsey and Company and Vice President of the McKinsey Hospital Institute. He is a practicing internal medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Chaguturu received his internal medicine and primary care training at Massachusetts General Hospital and received his undergraduate and medical degree from Brown University.

Cheryl R. Clark, MD, ScD, Director, Health Equity Research & Intervention, Center for Community Health and Health Equity, and Hospitalist, Brigham and Women’s/Faulkner Hospitals, Division of General Medicine & Primary Care; Harvard Medical School Faculty

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Dr. Emily Aaronson is the Assistant Chief Quality Officer at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), where she is a part of both the hospital, and the Emergency Department’s, quality and safety infrastructure. Dr. Aaronson is also an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an attending physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine. Prior to this, Dr. Aaronson was a resident in a combined program at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she served as a chief resident. She then completed the Harvard Medical School fellowship in Patient Safety and Quality Improvement, and a Masters in Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. Before medical school, Dr. Aaronson worked in healthcare consulting for the consulting arm of the Advisory Board Company.

Her current work focuses on provider-patient communication training, improving the care of patients with sepsis and efforts to harmonize the approach to quality and safety at MGH’s affiliated hospitals

Michael Cotugno, RPh, Director, Pharmacy Patient Care Services, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

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Jonathan Baum is a Lead Consultant with the Process Improvement Team at Brigham & Women’s Hospital (BWH). He was in the department from 2007-2011 and rejoined in 2014 after serving as Director of Phlebotomy (Operations) at BWH. He supports the organizations’ quality goals by facilitating, teaching and coaching process improvement. Jonathan has supported quality initiatives in Clinical Lab, Phlebotomy, Inpatient MRI, Outpatient Radiology and Preoperative Testing.

Prior to Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Jonathan held positions in process improvement and operations management at Johnson & Johnson, EMC Corporation, and Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare. In 2009 he co-founded the Massachusetts Hospital Lean Network, which continues to bring together healthcare quality improvement professionals for learning and networking.

Elizabeth Cullen, MS, Senior Project Manager for Care Redesign, Brigham and Women’s Physicians Organization

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Dr. Emily Aaronson is the Assistant Chief Quality Officer at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), where she is a part of both the hospital, and the Emergency Department’s, quality and safety infrastructure. Dr. Aaronson is also an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an attending physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine. Prior to this, Dr. Aaronson was a resident in a combined program at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she served as a chief resident. She then completed the Harvard Medical School fellowship in Patient Safety and Quality Improvement, and a Masters in Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. Before medical school, Dr. Aaronson worked in healthcare consulting for the consulting arm of the Advisory Board Company.

Her current work focuses on provider-patient communication training, improving the care of patients with sepsis and efforts to harmonize the approach to quality and safety at MGH’s affiliated hospitals

Rebecca Cunningham, MD, Medical Director for Ambulatory Care Management, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Harvard Medical School Faculty

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Jonathan Baum is a Lead Consultant with the Process Improvement Team at Brigham & Women’s Hospital (BWH). He was in the department from 2007-2011 and rejoined in 2014 after serving as Director of Phlebotomy (Operations) at BWH. He supports the organizations’ quality goals by facilitating, teaching and coaching process improvement. Jonathan has supported quality initiatives in Clinical Lab, Phlebotomy, Inpatient MRI, Outpatient Radiology and Preoperative Testing.

Prior to Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Jonathan held positions in process improvement and operations management at Johnson & Johnson, EMC Corporation, and Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare. In 2009 he co-founded the Massachusetts Hospital Lean Network, which continues to bring together healthcare quality improvement professionals for learning and networking.

Carole Dalby, RN, MBA, OCN, CCRP, Director, Clinical Quality Improvement and Director, Dana-Farber Pathways Operations, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

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At Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) in Boston, MA, Carole Dalby is the Director of Clinical Quality Improvement and Director of Dana-Farber Pathways Operations.  Carole’s priority is to solve clinical problems and improve the quality of patient care through the application of modern process improvement and communication techniques.

Ms. Dalby matriculates scientific study and quality improvement techniques bringing multidisciplinary health care teams together to find solutions. With communication and measurement as a foundation, Ms. Dalby explores opportunities to create streamlined approaches to the delivery of care while maintaining the highest level of quality of care.

Christian Dankers, MD, MBA, Associate Chief Quality Officer, Partners HealthCare; Harvard Medical School Faculty

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Dr. Dankers grew up in Monroe, WA and attended Williams College where he studied Philosophy. After college, he worked for three years at the Advisory Board Company in Washington DC, which provides business strategy research and consulting services for hospitals. He then attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he obtained his MD and MBA. He completed internal medicine residency at The Massachusetts General Hospital and remained at the MGH for three years following residency, splitting his time between clinical work as a hospitalist and quality and safety work as a member of the Edward P. Lawrence Center for Quality and Safety.

In 2013, Dr. Dankers joined the Department of Quality and Safety at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. As Associate Chief Quality Officer, he worked on Hospital Acquired Condition reduction, mortality reduction, improving the patient experience, and in strengthening safety culture through the application of Just Culture and reliability management principles. In 2018, Dr. Dankers joined Partners HealthCare as the Associate Chief Quality Officer, where he helps oversee ambulatory quality improvement, quality and safety collaboratives, Patient Reported Outcomes work, and Partners’ government payment and policy group. He continues to practice as a hospitalist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Heather Dell’Orfano, PharmD, CACP, CPPS, BCPS AQ-Cardiology, Medication Safety Officer, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

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at Brigham and Women’s Hospital where she focuses on the tracking, monitoring, and identification of adverse drug events as well as the development of process, technology and educational solutions designed to minimize or mitigate the incidence of medication errors. Additionally, Heather works with several multidisciplinary committees dedicated to the development and maintenance of safe medication practices.

Previously, Heather spent 12 years working with inpatient cardiology teams, both in critical and non-critical care, where her role was the clinical expert on medication optimization for cardiac patients. Additionally, she has been involved in several research projects that have been aimed at improving patient care and safety.

Heather received her PharmD from Purdue University in 2001 and holds academic appointments at Purdue University, Northeastern University and Massachusetts College of Pharmacy. She also has specialty training as a Board-Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist (BCPS) with Added Qualifications in Cardiology, and is a Certified Professional in Patient Safety (CPPS) as well as a Certified Anticoagulation Care Provider (CACP).

Sonali Desai, MD, MPH, Rheumatologist, Medical Director of Ambulatory Patient Safety, and Medical Director of Quality in the Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Harvard Medical School Faculty

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Dr. Desai is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and her contributions at Brigham & Women’s hospital (BWH) cover clinical care, research, administrative, and teaching roles. Sonali Desai is the Medical Director of Ambulatory Patient Safety at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Medical Director of Quality for the Department of Medicine, bringing 7 years of practical experience as a physician leader in measuring and improving ambulatory quality and safety in a large, academic organization. She is the director of Ambulatory Patient Safety at BWH, working with the patient safety team to: 1) enhance the safety culture; 2) improve feedback to staff who file safety reports; 3) promote guideline-based medication use for chronic diseases, and 4) develop ambulatory safety nets to reduce missed and delayed cancer diagnoses. An executive education course at Harvard Business School (2011-2012), designed for clinicians at BWH, has provided Dr. Desai with additional leadership skills. Dr. Desai served as Program Director for the Safety, Quality, Informatics and Leadership (SQIL) Program at HMS from 2015-2017, an innovative blended learning, master’s level, certificate course for global students. She is a practicing rheumatologist and has a MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health, with over 20 peer-reviewed publications and 2 current ambulatory patient safety/ quality grants for which she is the principal investigator.

Jessica C. Dudley, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Brigham and Women’s Physicians Organization; Vice President, Care Innovation, Brigham Health; Harvard Medical School Faculty

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As Chief Medical Officer for the Brigham and Women’s Physician’s Organization (BWPO), Dr. Dudley is responsible for the strategic development and oversight of physician led efforts to improve the quality and efficiency of clinical care. Dr. Dudley oversees the BWPO’s performance in risk contracts across commercial payers, as a Next Generation Accountable Care Organization with Medicare, and as a Medicaid ACO. As Vice President for Care Innovation for Brigham and Women’s HealthCare, Dr. Dudley is responsible for coordinating institutional and physician led efforts to develop population health management and care redesign programs that support the delivery of high value patient care with a focus on reducing overall medical trend and improving quality performance.  Previously, Dr. Dudley served as a Medical Director within the Partners HealthCare System addressing trend and quality performance across its Academic and Community hospital network.  Dr. Dudley also served as Medical Director for Partners Human Resources supporting the development and management of the pharmacy benefit for Partners employees and their dependents including contracting and on-going formulary management.

Dr. Dudley received her undergraduate degree from Yale University and medical degree from Harvard Medical School. She completed her internship and residency in Primary Care Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA, where she was a practicing primary care physician for 10 years. Dr. Dudley is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Jeff Durney, MS, Senior Program Manager for System Safety and Human Factors, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

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eff Durney is the Senior Program Manager for System Safety and Human Factors at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. In this role, Jeff brings subject matter expertise to the analysis and design of complex systems in preventing human errors. In this work, Jeff draws from his ten years of experience as an airline pilot and flight instructor and work done implementing the surgical safety checklist at hospitals both in the US and around the world.  Jeff lent his expertise in the development of a system safety assessment methodology which is being applied within the Institute for preemptive risk assessment and mitigation. Prior to joining Dana-Farber, Jeff served as the Quality Improvement Advisor in the Safe Surgery program at Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health systems innovation at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.  He has served as a faculty member in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Patient Safety Executive Development Program and the Fellowship in Patient Safety and Quality at Harvard Medical School.  Jeff earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Boston University and a Master of Science in Health Management and Policy from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.

Karen Fiumara, PharmD, BCPS, CPPS, Executive Director of Patient Safety, Department of Quality and Safety, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Course Organizer

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Course Organizer – Karen Fiumara, PharmD, is the Executive Director of Patient Safety at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), in Boston, Massachusetts. She received her PharmD from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy in 2002, and completed her residency in pharmacy practice at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 2003. She held the position of Medication Safety Officer and managed the Anticoagulation Management Service at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, overseeing the care of 3,000 patients. She works as Clinical Pharmacy Consultant for the New England Journal of Medicine and has authored papers in the fields of medication safety, adverse drug events, and anticoagulation.

Chris Fortier, PharmD, FASHP, Chief Pharmacy Officer, Massachusetts General Hospital

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Christopher Fortier is the Chief Pharmacy Officer at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA. Dr. Fortier received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Connecticut in 2003 and completed both a PGY-1 Practice Residency and a PGY-2 Health-System Pharmacy Administration Residency at the Medical University of South Carolina Medical Center. Chris previously was the Assistant Director of Pharmacy for Support and Operating Room Services at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Medical Center. Additionally, Chris serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy, Northeastern University School of Pharmacy, and the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy.

In 2013 Dr. Fortier was recognized as a Fellow of ASHP and received the Tradition of Excellence Award from the University of Connecticut Alumni Association. Additionally, in 2008 he received the ASHP New Practitioner Forum’s Distinguished Service Award. In 2010, Dr. Fortier was selected to represent South Carolina as a voting member at the ASHP/ASHP Foundation’s Pharmacy Practice Model Initiative Summit. He currently is on the ASHP Council on Public Policy and the Vice-chair of the ASHP Section of Pharmacy Practice Managers Education Steering Committee. Previously, Dr. Fortier served 8 years on the Vizient AMC Pharmacy Network (formally University HealthSystem Consortium) Executive Committee and chaired the Medication Use Informatics and Technology Committee. He has also served on the ASHP New Practitioners Forum Executive Committee for two years, the ASHP Task Force on Organizational Structure, and was an Associate Faculty member for the ASHP Foundation’s Pharmacy Leadership Academy.

Belén Fraile, MD, Senior Director, Population Health Management and Decision Support, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

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Dr. Fraile is Senior Director of Finance at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Harvard Medical School Affiliated Cancer Center where she directs the Population Health Management and Decision Support Department. She is Interested in the intersection between policy, politics and implementation of payment reform and overall health systems evolution on their current delivery models, both in the USA context and abroad.

Dr. Fraile holds expertise in:
– Health Reform implementation in Massachusetts and in the USA
– Healthcare Delivery Models across the USA, and in particular, in Oncology services
– Payment models in healthcare
– Value measurement in healthcare

Dr. Fraile was awarded with a Fulbright Scholarship in 2010 among other recognized Institutional award Institutions. She holds an MSc in Health Care Policy and Management from the Harvard School of Public Health (2012) and an MD from Complutense University of Madrid, Spain (2004). She is Board Certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology (2010).

Mark Galluzzo, MHA, ORT/L, Senior Lean Process Improvement Consultant, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

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Mark Galluzzo is a Senior Consultant with the Process Improvement Team at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). He joined the team in July of 2017 after serving at South Shore Hospital as a manager of the rehabilitation department and a Performance Improvement Specialist during the prior 9 years. Mark has supported quality and safety initiatives throughout his career as a clinician, manager, and Process Improvement Consultant. Mark began his transformation as healthcare provider/leader to Process Improvement Consultant in 2010 and has enjoyed utilizing the scientific approach to healthcare systems/problems in a similar fashion to conducting patient care.

Richard Gitomer, MD, MBA, Director, Brigham and Women’s Primary Care Center of Excellence, Brigham Health; Vice Chair for Primary Care, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Harvard Medical School Faculty

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As director, Dr. Gitomer leads Brigham and Women’s 200+ providers in 15 primary care clinics serving over 150,000 patients in the Boston area. Currently, the Center of Excellence is focused on redesign of the primary care clinics to support the ongoing transition from volume to value. This work includes defining the optimal care team, defining the standard work, developing the oversight infrastructure to support the deployment and ongoing operations of the care team.

Prior to joining Brigham Health Dr. Gitomer was President of Emory Healthcare’s Clinically Integrated Network (CIN). In that role he oversaw the creation of the network including governance, administrative operations, and clinical infrastructure in support of population health. The clinical infrastructure included implementing the electronic population health management platform, the high-risk care coordination program, the Medical Home transformation program, and disease registry operations.

In his role before the Emory CIN, Dr. Gitomer was chief quality officer (CQO) at Emory University Hospital Midtown (EUHM). In the CQO role he oversaw all quality and safety initiatives at EUHM and served on the system-wide quality leadership team at Emory. During his tenure, EUHM and Emory University Hospital were recognized for their top performance in quality and safety by the University HealthSystem Consortium.

Dr. Gitomer’s previous roles included Clinical Chief for General Medicine of the Emory Clinic and other regional and practice-level leadership positions. He received his undergraduate degree at The Johns Hopkins University, and his medical degree at Emory University School of Medicine.

Danielly Gonzaga, Executive Assistant, Department of Quality and Safety, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Course Organizer

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Anne H. Gross, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, Senior Vice President for Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

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Anne H. Gross is the Senior Vice President for Nursing and Patient Care Services (NPCS) and Chief Nursing Officer at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. She is responsible for the practice of clinical and research nursing across the Institute, including the inpatient, outpatient, satellite and community practices. She also has oversight for the Nursing and Patient Care Services Center for Clinical and Professional Development, the Cantor Center for Research in Nursing and Patient Care and a variety of other clinical services offered to patients and families at DFCI. Her contributions to nursing have assured patient access to healthcare, strengthened interdisciplinary teamwork in oncology and resulted in changes that have improved the patient and family experience and improved the quality and safety of oncology care and nursing practice. Since joining Dana-Farber in 2002, she has secured funding for programs and research supporting positive clinical practice environments, with a focus on interdisciplinary teamwork and nurse resilience and renewal. She has worked to translate best practices and evidence in oncology nursing to the care of patients at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and through her leadership in initiatives and on committees within the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS), the National Cancer Center Network (NCCN) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Comprehensive Cancer Center nurse executives committee. She serves on the University of Massachusetts Dean’s Advisory Board in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences and is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing.

Brandon Hehir, MBA, Director, Clinical Reporting & Analytics, Brigham and Women’s Physicians Organization

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Brandon Hehir, MBA, Director, joined the BWPO Medical Management team in April 2016. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Williams College in Williamstown, MA and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Texas at Austin, with a concentration in Information Management. He will be working on data analytics initiatives related to population health, evaluation management, and the Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW). Brandon also manages the decision support team and the physician online reporting (POLR) system for the BWPO.

Nancy Hilton, RN, MS, Associate Chief Nursing Officer of Solid Tumor, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

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Nancy Hilton, RN, MS, is the Associate Chief Nursing Officer of Solid Tumor at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in Boston, Massachusetts. Nancy joined Dana-Farber in 2007 and has had many roles within the institute. She presently has the responsibilities of overseeing the clinical practice of program nurses and nurse practitioners within Solid Tumor. In addition to these responsibilities, she has oversight of the clinical infusion and exam practices working with Nurse Directors of these areas: Early Drug Development, Sarcoma and Bone Oncology, Breast Oncology, Center for Cancer Genetics and Prevention, Gynecologic Oncology, Thoracic Oncology, Neuro-Oncology, Genitourinary Oncology, and Head and Neck Oncology, working collaboratively with the Physician Clinical Directors. Nancy works collaboratively with multidisciplinary colleagues to maintain regulatory compliance with the Joint Commission, American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) to ensure Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI) with maintaining certification. In addition, she works closely with American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) with magnet designation and works with nursing staff to obtain and maintain nursing certification.

Nancy currently sits on the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS), Professional and Technical Advisory Committee. In 2016 Nancy joined the ONS Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing (CJON) Review Board.

David Jackman, MD, Medical Director of Clinical Pathways and Senior Physician, Lowe Center for Thoracic Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Harvard Medical School Faculty

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David Jackman, MD, is a Senior Physician in the Thoracic Oncology Program at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.  He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Brown University, followed by his Internal Medicine residency at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA. After an oncology fellowship through the combined program at Dana-Farber and the Massachusetts General Hospital, he joined the thoracic group at DFCI. His clinical research efforts have focused on targeted therapies in lung cancer and mesothelioma, as well as the clinical impact of predictive biomarkers for such therapies. Dr. Jackman is the Medical Director for the Dana-Farber Clinical Pathways program, a web-based, oncology decision-support platform powered by content wholly curated by Dana-Farber’s world class oncology faculty. Dr. Jackman is an author on over 50 peer-reviewed original research articles, as well as multiple reviews and book chapters.

Joseph Jacobson, MD, MSc, Chief Quality Officer, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Harvard Medical School Faculty

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Joe Jacobson serves as Chief Quality Officer at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute where he is responsible for patient safety and quality of care in the principal disciplines of oncology at the main institution and its network programs. He is trained in Medical Oncology and Hematology, holds a Masters degree in epidemiology, and completed advanced training at the Intermountain Healthcare Institute for Healthcare Delivery Research. He has practiced extensively in both academic and community settings. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Joe is committed to creating innovations in quality of care and patient safety. As Chief Quality Officer at the DFCI, he is engaged in multiple projects locally, regionally and nationally to define and improve care delivery by applying the tools of quality improvement. For over five years, he co-led a five-month project-based training program at Partners HealthCare that has trained hundreds of clinicians in how to undertake quality improvement. He currently mentors physicians and other clinicians in quality improvement and patient safety, develops systems to measure, standardize and improve care, and continues to create the needed capacity for broad training in quality improvement leadership locally and nationally.

Kunal Jajoo, MD, Gastroenterologist, Clinical Director for the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endoscopy, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Harvard Medical School Faculty

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Dr. Jajoo is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Clinical Director for the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endoscopy where he has worked since 2010. Previously he was an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City. His clinical expertise is focused on excellent patient care in advanced therapeutic procedures including endoscopic ultrasound (EUS), endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), enteral stenting, and other therapeutic endoscopic procedures. Most advanced endoscopic procedures are performed with an advanced endoscopy fellow, allowing for Dr. Jajoo to play a significant role in mentoring fellows. He received the Jerry S. Trier, MD Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching in this role. Dr. Jajoo has co-authored textbook chapters and has given local and national lectures on various aspects of advanced endoscopy and esophageal and pancreatobiliary diseases. He has been named to the Endoscopy Leadership Committee to develop patient policies and procedures related to advanced endoscopic procedures and improvement of quality measures in general endoscopy. Additionally, he has been named to the steering committee for the Center for Esophageal and Gastric Cancer at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center (DFBWCC) and the Co-Director for Gastroenterology at the Pancreas and Biliary Tumor Center at DFBWCC.

Daniel Kavanaugh, MBA, Manager, Brigham and Women’s Physicians Organization, Brigham Health

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At Brigham Health, Dan serves as the administrative and operational lead for multiple initiatives. He manages the organization’s government incentive programs, such as Meaningful Use and the Quality Payment Program, and is responsible for Brigham’s ambulatory electronic health record (EHR) optimization efforts. These efforts focus on three strategic areas: improving the EHR, optimizing provider use, and supplementing Epic functionality. Dan is also the administrative lead for various patient engagement and telehealth efforts including Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs), virtual video visits and asynchronous provider-to-patient and provider-to-provider telehealth programs. Dan received his Master of Business Administration at Suffolk University in Boston, MA.

Kathleen Keavany, MHA, Vice President, Ambulatory Clinical Operations, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

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Kathleen “Katie” Keavany, MHA, is the Vice President of Ambulatory Clinical Operations at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Katie joined the DFCI in 1994 and has served in numerous roles within the organization, focusing primarily in the areas of clinical operations, service line development, financial management, access and patient experience. Prior to entering health care, Katie worked as a Legislative Aide for the Massachusetts House of Representatives where she focused on public policy to improve health care and public safety for constituents of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston.

Ramin Khorasani, MD, MPH, Vice President of Radiology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Harvard Medical School Faculty

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Dr. Khorasani is Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School and Distinguished Chair for Medical Informatics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) in Boston. He has served as Vice Chairman of the Department of Radiology at BWH for the past 15 years. He cofounded the Center for Evidence-Based Imaging (CEBI), a multidisciplinary translational research center, in 2003 and continue to serve as its Director. He is a practicing abdominal radiologist. He completed his clinical training at BWH in 1995, and his research and leadership training in clinical effectiveness, health policy and management culminating in a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from the Harvard School of Public Health in 2003. He has extensive experience in using innovative health IT and change management tools and strategies to effect health system clinical transformation.

Hakim Lakhani, MS, Director of Process Improvement, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

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Karl Laskowski, MD, MBA, is Associate Medical Director at the Brigham and Women’s Physicians Organization (BWPO) and Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. In his leadership role at the Physicians Organization, Dr. Laskowski focuses on engaging clinicians in innovation, care redesign, and value improvement. Among other efforts, he created and continues to lead a grassroots incubator to support and evaluate local care redesign efforts (BCRISP), co-directs the BWPO process improvement training course, and leads efforts engaging in novel bundled contracting arrangements.

Dr. Laskowski is a graduate of Yale University School of Medicine and Harvard Business School, and trained in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital where he continues to have an active clinical practice.

Jan Lamey, MS Program Director for Care Management, Brigham Health

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Jan Lamey, MS, joined the Medical Management group in May 2012. Jan came to the Brigham in 2008 from Partners HealthCare and prior to joining the BWPO, Jan was a Lead Analyst in the Center for Clinical Excellence. Jan earned her Master’s degree from UMass Lowell in Health Management and Informatics in 2014.  As Program Director for Care Management, Jan supports the development and implementation of Brigham Health ambulatory care management strategy, including oversight and management of various programs and projects aiming to pilot, test, and scale Care Management efforts for various populations of patients in the Ambulatory and, in some cases, Inpatient setting.

Karl Laskowski, MD, MBA, Associate Medical Director, Brigham and Women’s Physicians Organization; Harvard Medical School Faculty

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Hakim Lakhani is the Director of Process Improvement at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. In this role, Hakim oversees the functions of System Safety & Human Factors, Process Improvement, Health System Engineering, and Quality Analytics within the Quality and Patient Safety department of the Institute. Hakim leads Institute wide initiatives focusing on improving patient safety and efficiency. Hakim has led the development of a system safety assessment methodology which is being applied within the Institute for preemptive risk assessment and mitigation. Hakim’s team also supports training and coaching of DFCI staff on process improvement concepts, tools and techniques. Hakim has a master’s in industrial & management engineering with a focus on Health Systems Management and was the first international candidate awarded an Administrative Fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Before joining DFCI, he worked in various healthcare settings in Canada focusing on strategy, transformation, performance measurement, improvement and analytics.

Ryan Leib, MBA, Director of Analytics, Departments of Ambulatory Practice Management and Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

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Ryan Leib is the Director of Analytics for the departments of Ambulatory Practice Management and Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. In his role, Ryan uses various data sources to support operations, to drive improvement projects, and to inform strategic decisions. He brings together physicians, nurses, administrators, and technical resources to tackle some of Dana-Farber’s most difficult challenges. Ryan oversees the Real-Time Location System used at the Dana-Farber Longwood Campus, determining how information from the system is used to improve care. Ryan recently helped create the DF/BWCC Cancer Diagnostic Service – the first program in New England dedicated to helping patients with suspected cancer reach a diagnosis quickly.

Prior to joining Dana-Farber, Ryan was a health care consultant working with organizations including Cancer Care Ontario and the Cancer Care delivery arm of Alberta Health Services. Ryan holds an MBA from the University of Toronto and a BS in Health Information Science from the University of Victoria, Canada.

David Levine, MD, MPH, MA, Clinician Investigator and Assistant Medical Director, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Harvard Medical School Faculty

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David Levine, MD, MPH, MA, is a practicing general internist and clinician-investigator at Brigham Health and Harvard Medical School. He is active in clinical and translational research through a focus on optimizing quality time at home, digital health technology, and measuring the quality and experience of outpatient care. He sees his role as helping patients achieve the right care at the right time in the right place by designing, implementing, and evaluating innovative interaction spaces between a care team, technology, and a patient.

As assistant medical director for the BWPO, he works to bring hospital-level care to patients’ homes, where a team provides acute care to acutely ill adults in their home as a substitute to traditional hospitalization. His work in digital health has included national studies of seniors’ use of digital health technology, how digital health use changes with periods of declining health and use of chronic care virtual visits in primary care.

David received his undergraduate degree from Pomona College in biology and politics. He earned his master’s in teaching in special and secondary science education and served as a high school chemistry teacher and science department chair in Chicago Public Schools. He received his medical degree from Washington University in St Louis and completed his residency at New York University and Bellevue Hospital in internal medicine – primary care. He completed a general internal medicine fellowship at Brigham and Harvard Medical School and received his master’s in public health at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Adam Licurse, MD, Associate Medical Director, Brigham and Women’s Physicians Organization; Medical Director, Brigham Health Virtual Care; Associate Medical Director, Partners Population Health Management; Harvard Medical School Faculty

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At Brigham Health, he leads a number of population health and care redesign efforts, including the Brigham’s patient reported outcome measure (PROMs) program, and the system’s telehealth efforts. In his Partners Population Health Management role, he directs the strategy and implementation of the group’s multiple patient engagement and telehealth programs, including efforts in shared decision making, in-office and virtual patient education, online patient communities, remote monitoring, patient texting, and virtual patient self-management.

He has published multiple articles about evidence-based clinical decision-making and financial ties to industry, teaches in Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s (BWH) Clinical Process Improvement Program and the ambulatory curriculum of the BWH medical residency program, and has been an invited panelist and speaker at numerous national conferences on population health, telehealth, and patient engagement.

Adam practices primary care medicine at the Brigham. He completed residency training in Internal Medicine at BWH and earned his MD and MHS at Yale School of Medicine where he graduated cum laude. He graduated from Yale College.

Claire Massero, MS, Performance Improvement Manager, Performance Improvement, Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital

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Claire recently transitioned to the Performance Improvement Manager position within the Performance Improvement Department after spending a year as a Senior Consultant at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital. She has coached, trained, and facilitated various projects across the organization with a focus on increasing efficiency and improving the patient experience. Claire earned her Master of Science in Industrial Engineering from Northeastern University.

Caitlin Murphy Manca, MPH, Clinical Pathways Program Manager, Department of Quality and Safety, Brigham and Women’s Hospital,  Course Organizer

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Course Organizer – Caitlin is the Program Manager of the newly created Clinical Pathways program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). She is responsible for working with surgical specialties to develop, implement, and sustain clinical pathways based on the best known practices in order to reduce length of stay, infection rates, and readmissions. Caitlin first joined BWH as a process improvement consultant in 2015 after completing her Master’s degree in Public Health at Boston University where she concentrated in Healthcare Policy and Management with a focus on management. Caitlin earned her Green Belt in Lean management through an initiative to improve hand washing compliance in an ICU setting and completed the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Practicum Certificate through a quality improvement project focused on reducing length of stay for newborns. Caitlin earned her BS in chemistry at Boston College.

Anthony Massaro, MD, Director, Medical Intensive Care Unit, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Harvard Medical School Faculty

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Dr. Anthony Francis Massaro is a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). He is also an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS). After receiving his medical degree from HMS, Dr. Massaro completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in pulmonary disease at BWH. He is board certified in critical care medicine and pulmonary medicine.
Dr. Massaro’s clinical interests include asthma, bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer. He has authored over 40 peer-reviewed publications, has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, and was named to the annual list of the Best Doctors in America.

Charles Morris, MD, MPH, Associate Chief Medical Officer, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Harvard Medical School Faculty

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Dr. Charles Morris is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He completed his undergraduate degree at Princeton University, matriculated from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 1999 and a residency in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston in 2002. After obtaining a Master’s in Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health and serving as Chief Resident at Brigham and Women’s, he joined the faculty as a staff physician, educator and administrator. He practices both ambulatory and hospital-based medicine and is active in post-graduate medical education. He is a regular speaker on clinical topics at national educational meetings, has authored chapters in widely published textbooks including Harrison’s, and has been a featured discussant at teaching conferences including those published by the New England Journal of Medicine. Administratively he works as the Associate Chief Medical Officer for the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, overseeing operations, quality and safety for the inpatient and emergency department services.

Elizabeth Mort, MD, MPH, Senior Vice President of Quality and Safety, Chief Quality Officer, and Internist, Massachusetts General Hospital and Massachusetts General Physicians Organization; Harvard Medical School Faculty

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Dr. Mort has over fifteen years of experience in executive administrative roles in the academic medical center and integrated delivery setting. Her areas of expertise include healthcare quality measurement, quality and safety improvement, managed care medical management strategies, pay for performance contracting, and hospital operations. At Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) she oversees the Center for Quality & Safety and is responsible for high-stakes quality and safety measurement and improvement work across a broad range of initiatives for MGH/Massachusetts General Physicians Organization (MGPO) and plays a leadership role in Q&S across the MGH family of hospitals. In her recent role at Partners HealthCare as Senior Medical Director, she played leadership roles on system-wide initiatives related to quality, safety, contracting and pay for performance.

Dr. Mort completed her residency in primary care internal medicine at MGH in 1986 followed by two fellowship years at the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. She also completed a Masters in Public Health at the University of Michigan in 1982, which focused on Health Planning and Administration as well as Population Planning. Dr. Mort is currently an Assistant Professor in both the Departments of Medicine and Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School.

Dana Opas, MPH, Manager, Physician Engagement, Brigham and Women’s Physicians Organization

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As Manager for Physician Engagement at the Brigham and Women’s Physicians Organization (BWPO), Dana Opas oversees and coordinates the myriad of faculty wellness and professional development initiatives across The Brigham. Prior to joining in January 2018, Dana worked in healthcare consulting where she directed the design and implementation of therapy management programs across the United States and Canada. Before that, she was at athenahealth driving PCMH performance strategies and designing EMR workflows to support providers in pay for performance contracts.

Dana received her undergraduate degree in health policy from Brandeis University. She graduated from Hebrew University in Jerusalem with a master’s degree in international public health.

Christin Price, MD, Program Administrative Director, Brigham Health Bridge Clinic; Associate Director, Medical Management, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

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Christin Price, MD, is the Program Administrative Director of the Brigham Health Bridge Clinic, an outpatient program for patients with Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) and has been the Program Manager for BCORE (Brigham Comprehensive Opioid Response and Education). Dr. Price received her medical degree from Weill Cornell Medical College and completed her Primary Care residency and Infectious Disease fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Her past clinical and research interests have focused on the treatment of patients with infectious complications related to their Substance Use Disorder.

Chanu Rhee, MD, MPH, Assistant Hospital Epidemiologist, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Harvard Medical School Faculty

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Dr. Rhee is the Assistant Hospital Epidemiologist and a critical care and infectious disease physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), and an Assistant Professor of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School / Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute. His clinical and research interests include sepsis, healthcare-associated infections, and antimicrobial resistance and stewardship, with a focus on using electronic health record data to improve disease surveillance, prevention, and quality of care. Dr. Rhee is the clinical co-lead for the Partners Sepsis Collaborative that aims to improve the quality of sepsis care at BWH and across the Partners HealthCare System through the dissemination of clinical guidelines and various tools that leverage the electronic health record. He has led multicenter investigations to study sepsis epidemiology and develop novel surveillance methods for tracking national sepsis incidence rates and outcomes using electronic health record data. He has received grant funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and received the Maxwell Finland Award for Research Excellence from the Massachusetts Infectious Disease Society in 2016.

Katherine Santos, Director of Service Excellence and Performance Improvement, Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital

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Katherine S. Santos is the Director of Service Excellence and Performance Improvement (PI) at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital (BWFH). She is charged with overseeing the organizational strategies to improve the patient/family experience and achieve clinical and operational excellence at BWFH. She works closely with senior leadership to develop and support achievement of the annual strategic goals. She also manages departments that are centered on service excellence like Performance Improvement, Patient/Family Relations, Interpreters, and Volunteer Services. Katherine is also an expert trainer, having developed courses on lean, process improvement, and change management for leaders and employees of Brigham Health.

Prior to joining BWFH in 2012, Katherine worked for nine years in PI at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Katherine earned her Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from Harvard. She is trained in Lean, Kaizen, Work-Out, and Change Acceleration Process by GE Healthcare Performance Solutions.

Jeffrey Schnipper, MD, MPH, FHM, Director of Clinical Research, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Harvard Medical School Faculty

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Jeffrey Schnipper, MD, MPH, FHM, is the Director of Clinical Research of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) Hospitalist Service. He is also an Associate Physician in the Division of General Medicine at BWH and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

His research interests focus on improving the quality and safety of healthcare delivery for general medical patients. Subject areas include safe and effective medication use, transitions in care, and communication among healthcare providers and between providers, patients, and families. The quality improvement interventions that he studies include the greater use of health information technology, hospital-based pharmacists, and process redesign using continuous quality improvement and implementation science methods.

Dr. Schnipper is a graduate of Harvard College. He received his MD from Harvard Medical School in 1996. He completed a residency in internal medicine and primary care at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1999. In 2001, he completed a fellowship in general internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and earned an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health in Clinical Effectiveness.

Thomas Sequist, MD, MPH, Chief Quality and Safety Officer, Partners HealthCare; Harvard Medical School Faculty

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Dr. Sequist is the Chief Quality and Safety Officer at Partners HealthCare, where he works with the leadership of multiple hospitals and institutions to measure and improve the delivery of health care across the care continuum. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School, with joint appointments in the Division of General Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. Previous to his current role, Dr. Sequist served as a general internist and Director of Research and Clinical Program Evaluation at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates and Atrius Health. Dr. Sequist’s research interests include ambulatory quality measurement and improvement, with a focus on patient and provider education, and the innovative use of health information technology. Dr. Sequist is particularly interested in health policy issues affecting care for Native Americans, and has worked collaboratively with the Indian Health Service to evaluate the provision of care for this population.

Dr. Sequist is a member of the Taos Pueblo tribe in New Mexico and is committed to improving Native American health care, serving as the Director of the Four Directions Summer Research Program at Harvard Medical School and the Medical Director of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Physician Outreach Program with the Indian Health Service. He graduated from Cornell University with a BS in chemical engineering. He received his MD degree from Harvard Medical School, and his MPH degree from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Jo Shapiro, MD, FACS, Director of the Center for Professionalism and Peer Support; Surgeon, Department of Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Harvard Medical School Faculty

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Dr. Shapiro is the director of the Center for Professionalism and Peer Support and a surgeon in the Department of Surgery at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) in Boston and an Associate Professor of Otolaryngology at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Shapiro launched the BWH Center for Professionalism and Peer Support in 2008. Since that time the Center has supported and collaborated with multiple institutions, nationally and internationally to enhance clinician wellness by supporting teamwork and respect and mitigating clinician burnout. She serves on the Ethics and Professionalism Committee of the American Board of Medical Specialties and was invited to serve as Committee Chairperson.

As a clinician leader Dr. Shapiro served as Chief of the Division of Otolaryngology at BWH from 1999 through March of 2016; she continues to maintain a surgical practice in the Division, specializing in oropharyngeal swallowing disorders.

Dr. Shapiro is committed to global health medical education and training. She was appointed Honorary Professor of Professional Behavior and Peer Support in Medicine through the academic track at Groningen University Medical Center in The Netherlands. She serves as Visiting Professor and Otolaryngology Residency Program Advisor for Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda. She was also a member of the Israeli Commission for Higher Education International Committee for the Evaluation of Medical Schools in Israel.

Dr. Shapiro received her B.A. from Cornell University and her M.D. from George Washington University Medical School. Her general surgery training was at University of California, San Diego and then UCLA. She did her otolaryngology training at Harvard followed by a year of a National Institute of Health Training Grant Fellowship in swallowing physiology. She has been a faculty member in the Department of Surgery at BWH since 1987. She is married to an internist, and they have three children.

Julia Sinclair, MBA, Senior Vice President, Inpatient and Clinical Services, Brigham Health

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Julia Sinclair, MBA, is the Senior Vice President of Inpatient and Clinical Services at Brigham Health (BH). Julia serves as a key member in senior administration, developing strategic initiatives focusing on organizational strengths and structure and process enhancements. In collaboration with her nursing and physician colleagues, Julia is responsible for the overall development and enhancements for the inpatient care service line. Additionally, Julia collaborates with colleagues at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) to further develop the joint DF/BWCC Oncology Service Line. As part of Clinical Services, Julia works directly with Emergency Medicine and Emergency Preparedness, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatric Newborn Medicine, Palliative Care, and Pathology departments at Brigham Health. Julia also leads key Partners HealthCare strategies related to Urgent Care, the Partners Enterprise Pathology System, and the Preferred Provider Agreement for ambulance transfers.

Prior to joining Brigham Health, Julia held key posts at Massachusetts General Hospital for 20 years, most recently as the Executive Director of Emergency Services and Emergency Preparedness. She completed Brigham Health’s Deland Fellowship program in 1990.

After receiving her Bachelor of Science in Biology at McGill University in Montreal, Julia earned her Master’s in Healthcare Administration at Concordia University in Montreal, and her Master of Business Administration at Boston University. Julia also serves on the board of Boston MedFlight.

Catherine Ulbricht, PharmD, MBA, CPPS, Director of Clinical and Academic Programs, Patient Safety, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

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Catherine (Kate) Ulbricht, PharmD, MBA, CPPS received a Bachelor of Science degree from University of Connecticut, Doctorate of Pharmacy from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Sciences, and Master in Business Administration from Northeastern University. Kate has served as a Senior Attending Clinical Pharmacist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Assistant Professor at multiple universities since 1996. She founded an international research collaboration providing evidence-based decision support tools promoting patient safety. Her publications include hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific articles, book chapters and texts. Kate helps propel Brigham and Women’s Hospital Joint Commission/National Patient Safety Goals, transparency, and related educational efforts forward.

Scott Weiner, MD, MPH, FACEP, FAAEM, Attending Physician, Department of Emergency Medicine, and Program Director, Brigham Comprehensive Opioid Response and Education (B-CORE), Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Harvard Medical School Faculty

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Scott G. Weiner, MD, MPH, FACEP, FAAEM, is an attending emergency physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He is the Director of B-CORE: The Brigham Comprehensive Opioid Response and Education Program. Dr. Weiner completed his residency training at the Harvard-Affiliated Emergency Medicine Program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and his MPH degree at Harvard School of Public Health. He is President-Elect of the Massachusetts College of Emergency Physicians. His research focuses on technological innovations that improve the care of ED patients presenting with pain, including usage and optimization of online prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) and tablet-based screening tools.

Paige Wickner, MD, MPH, Assistant Medical Director for Quality and Safety, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Assistant Medical Director, Brigham and Women’s Physicians Organization; Harvard Medical School Faculty

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Paige Wickner, MD, MPH is an Assistant Medical Director for Quality and Safety at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and an Assistant Medical Director for Brigham and Women’s Physician Organization. She completed her medical school degree at Dartmouth Medical School, and internship at Brown’s Rhode Island Hospital. She then went on to complete her internal medicine training at Yale New Haven Hospital, where she stayed and completed an Allergy and Immunology Fellowship. During her Allergy and Immunology Fellowship she did a Masters in Public Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Wickner participates in research, clinical and quality projects examining drug allergy listings and their implications for patient quality and safety. Dr. Wickner additionally focuses on the patient experience at BWH. Efforts include working with both inpatient and outpatient arenas and developing small- and large-scale projects and endeavors focused on improvement in the patient experience. Dr. Wickner helps lead institutional efforts for improving faculty wellness at BWH and work on the Brigham Care Redesign and Incubator Startup Program (BCRISP). Dr. Wickner also attends in the BWH inpatient medical service, serves as the Program Director for the Brigham’s Allergy and Immunology Fellowship Training Program, and sees inpatient and outpatient Allergy and Immunology patients at BWH.

Sarah Williams, MPH, Safety Program Manager, Department of Quality and Safety, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Course Organizer

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Conrad Charles Worrell, RN, Staff Nurse, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

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Conrad is a 1982, graduate of St. Martha’s School of Nursing, and has been certified in GI Nursing since 2004. His experience as an Emergency Room Nurse brought him to GI. He was the Clinical Leader of Endoscopy and Springfield Hospital in Vermont from 2004-2013 and the Unit Supervisor of Endoscopy at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire from 2013-2016. Conrad has served on the Board of Directors of the National Society of Gastroenterology Nurses from 2010-2016. Presently Conrad is a staff nurse at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.

Adam Wright, PhD, FACMI, Senior Scientist, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Harvard Medical School Faculty

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Adam Wright, PhD, FACMI is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a Senior Scientist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His research focuses on electronic health records and clinical decision support systems. He is currently leading two NIH-funded research projects: one focused on enhancing clinical problem lists using data mining and natural language processing and the other focused on improving clinical decision support using anomaly detection. In addition to his research, Dr. Wright teaches Harvard’s introductory biomedical informatics courses, BMI 701 and 702, teaches medical students in the healthcare policy and clinical epidemiology courses and chairs the Department of Biomedical Informatics’ curriculum committee. Dr. Wright has a PhD in Biomedical Informatics from Oregon Health and Science University and a BS in Mathematical and Computational Sciences from Stanford University.