Thomas Zeltner, MD, is an international expert leader in public health and health system development. He was a 2010 Fellow of the Advanced Leadership Initiative of Harvard University. He is co-founder of the Global Patient Safety Forum, a convening organization of the world’s leading patient safety organizations, and a Managing Editor of the Journal of Patient Safety. He advises international organizations and national governments in health policies and health policy reforms. He has served as Special Envoy in financing for WHO. In this capacity, he advised the Director General of WHO on the identification of an improved financing framework for the Organization. He served as Special Envoy of WHO, advising the Director General in critical areas of the current reform of this UN agency (how to cooperate with non-State actors such as NGOs and organizations in the private sector without compromising WHO’s integrity, and how to better align WHO’s priorities with the resources available to finance them). He is a member of the Global Agenda Council on Digital Health of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Dr. Zeltner is an advisor to the emerging threats Community of Practice, providing a global prospective. He provides liaison with The World Health Organization.

Dr. Zeltner is president of Blood Transfusion CRS Switzerland, the organization in charge of securing Switzerland’s provision with blood and blood products. He is a board member of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences and President of Science-et-Cité. Since 1992, he has been Professor of Public Health at the University of Bern, Switzerland.

From 1991 to 2009, Dr. Zeltner was the Director-General of the Federal Office of Public Health of Switzerland, the National Health and Public Health Authority and Secretary of State for Health. In this function he was a key actor in Swiss health policy and represented Switzerland in many international health organizations.

He was graduated with an MD and a master’s degree in law from the University of Bern. He holds a specialist degree in human pathology and forensic medicine.

Hide bio

Dr. Denham launched the Global Patient Safety Forum with other global leaders in healthcare including Dr. Thomas Zeltner, the former health minister of Switzerland and other quality leaders from the Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, and Harvard affiliated hospitals who all are asked to serve audiences outside of the United States.  Their most immediate work is to address the Coronavirus crisis with R&D focused on leadership, practice, and technology adoption innovations.

Denham and the other leaders from clinical, operational, administrative, legal, human resources, and policy areas have convened to communicate very important patient safety information that crosses all borders. As a practicing radiotherapist in the U.S., Dr. Denham had learned the critical role of education when it came to radiation safety for caregivers and patients. The founders of the Global Patient Safety Forum seek to meet the needs of both industrialized nations and emerging nations as is addressed by the work in the 5 Rights of Imaging found on this website.

Dr. Denham has taught innovation R&D and performance improvement of products, services, and technologies both in the US and abroad. Although he started his career as a doctor in private practice, his work in quality with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, National Quality Forum, and Premier Innovation Institute prompted invitations to join academic work in performance improvement. As a Professor of Health Engineering adjunct faculty at the at the Mayo Clinic medical school with duel teaching appointments at the Harvard schools of public health and school of medicine, he has worked with educators and researchers from across the globe.

After serving as an associate editor with a wide following of his articles, he was appointed the Editor and Chief of the Journal of Patient Safety and has produced more than 100 works including peer reviewed articles and multimedia productions. Through a national R&D testbed in the US, his not for profit organization is in its 10th year of leading more than 100 international web programs. Two feature length movies globally broadcasted through Discovery Europe and international partners have brought quality improvement information to caregivers and consumers. The films have featured the critical work led and supported by the World Health Organization in Geneva.

The purpose of the Global Patient Safety Forum will be to continue to serve international audiences with information and media that may have been produced in the United States and been refined for global audiences.

One of the latest areas of focus by Denham and the GPSF team are in pre-hospital care of the most common causes of death that can be delivered by non-clinical family members and the public before emergency services arrives. The Medical Tactical program developed by the group will be addressing the leading causes of death to children, youth, and adults in the workforce years.

A second research domain is in Emerging Threats to Medical Centers and those they serve, those who serve, and their property – both physical and virtual. Threat Safety Science is this area of study being pursued by Chief William Adcox, Dr. Gregory Botz, and a number of the GPSF leaders.

The goal of Dr. Denham and the leadership team are to address systems issues and especially insider and outsider threats that can be minimized through prevention, preparedness, protection, and performance improvement practices.

Hide bio

With 37 years in municipal and campus policing, William H. Adcox serves as the Chief of Police and CSO at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and The University of Texas Health Science Center. Chief Adcox holds an MBA degree from UTEP and is a graduate of the PERF’s Senior Management Institute for Police and the Wharton School ASIS Program for Security Executives. He is the recipient of the IACLEA’s 2013 Award for Administrative Excellence and was named by Security Magazine as one of the “Most Influential People in Security 2013.” The agency received the IHSS Foundation’s prestigious 2015 Lindberg Bell Distinguished Program Award. Nationally, Chief Adcox received the Campus Safety 2015 Director of the Year Award in Healthcare; and locally he received the Texas Police Chiefs Association’s 2015 Leadership Award. He is recognized as a pioneer of the discipline of Threat Safety Science which integrates patient and caregiver safety into an Institutional Health System model.  He is also a co-founder of the global Emerging Threats Community of Practice and a subject matter expert in a number of domains of the new discipline of Threat Safety Science with Dr. Gregory Botz, Vicki King, and Dr. Denham.

Hide bio

Gregory H. Botz, MD, FCCM, is a Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He received his medical degree from The George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, DC. He completed an internship in internal medicine at Huntington Memorial Hospital, and then completed an anesthesiology residency and critical care medicine fellowship at Stanford University in California. He has served on the faculty at Duke University School of Medicine, and is an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor of Anesthesia at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Botz is a 2004 graduate of the Intermountain Healthcare Advanced Training Program in Health Care Delivery Improvement. He is a member of the steering committee and faculty for the MD Anderson Clinical Safety and Effectiveness training program, and a Charter Fellow in Clinical Safety and Effectiveness for the UT System. He has served as the University of Texas Chancellor’s Health Fellow in Quality of Care and Patient Safety.

Dr. Botz is currently the medical director of the Simulation Center and Code Blue Team Operations. He was previously medical director of the ICU, Transfer Center, Acute Care Training Center, and the Medical Emergency Rapid Intervention Team. As a clinician-educator, Dr. Botz serves as regional faculty for the American Heart Association Emergency Cardiovascular Care training programs, and he is a national consultant for the Society of Critical Care Medicine training programs. He was a senior editor for the American Board of Anesthesiology Joint Council on Anesthesiology Examinations, program director for the UTHSC-Houston Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine Fellowship, and a member of The University of Texas System Health Care Components ICU Quality Improvement Collaborative. He has participated in SCCM education programs in collaboration with the Japanese Society of Intensive Care Medicine, the Saudi Critical Care Society, the Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine, and the Association of Intensive Medicine in Brazil (AMIB). Dr. Botz has collaborated with the Saudi Critical Care Society and the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties in the creation of a critical care medicine residency program, and served as an external board examiner for the Saudi Critical Care Medicine Board Examinations. Dr. Botz is the content leader for the Global Med Tac Training Certification program focused on lifesaving bystander care for the leading causes of preventable death in children, youth, and adults in workforce years. He is also a co-founder of the global Emerging Threats Community of Practice and a subject matter expert in a number of domains of the new discipline of Threat Safety Science with Chief William Adcox, Vicki King, and Dr. Charles Denham.

Hide bio

Vicki King, MSCJ is the Assistant Chief of Police with the University of Texas Police at Houston. During her 30-year career, Vicki served 27 years with the Houston Police Department, rising to the rank of Assistant Chief and earning a master’s degree in Criminal Justice. As Chief of Detectives, Tactical Support Commander, and Director of Forensic Services, she oversaw some of HPD’s highest-profile cases, including serial homicides, corruption, domestic violence, sexual assaults, and gangland slayings. After retiring from HPD, Inspector King served as an emissary to the Saudi Royal family; as an adjunct professor for the University of Houston system; and as Chief of Police for the City of La Marque. MD Anderson and UT-Health recruited Inspector King to head up their Threat Assessment Unit. In her new role, Inspector King works with multidisciplinary teams to identify and mitigate risks.  She is a subject matter expert for the global Emerging Threats Community of Practice in workplace violence and leading best practices to prevent it, prepare for it, protect those we serve from it, and develop performance improvement methods to combat it.

Hide bio

Clayton Christensen is the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He is regarded as one of the world’s top experts on innovation and growth. He holds a B.A. with highest honors in economics from Brigham Young University (1975), and an M.Phil. in applied econometrics from Oxford University (1977), where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. He received an MBA with High Distinction from the Harvard Business School in 1979, graduating as a George F. Baker Scholar. In 1982 Professor Christensen was named a White House Fellow, and served through 1983 as assistant to U.S. Transportation Secretaries Drew Lewis and Elizabeth Dole. He was awarded his DBA from the Harvard Business School in 1992. Professor Christensen became a faculty member there in 1992, and was awarded a full professorship with tenure in 1998. He holds five honorary doctorates and an honorary chaired professorship at the Tsinghua University in Taiwan.

Christensen has served as a director of many companies, and has advised the executives of scores of the world’s major corporations. Christensen is also an experienced entrepreneur, having started four successful companies. Prior to joining the HBS faculty, in 1984 he and three MIT professors founded CPS Technologies, which has become a leading developer and manufacturer of products from high-technology materials. Professor Christensen is the best-selling author of eight books and more than a hundred articles. The Innovator’s Dilemma received the Global Business Book Award as the best business book of the year (1997); and in 2011 The Economist named it as one of the six most important books about business ever written. Professor Christensen was featured in the Discovery Channel documentary Surfing the Healthcare Tsunami: Bring Your Best Board along with a number of others participating in the Innovators Network as he has been a tireless champion for values grounded leadership. Professor Christensen’s theories provide a number of foundational elements the Med Tac Bystander Care Certification Program and the Emerging Threats Community of Practice led by GPSF members.

Hide bio

Ann Christensen directs the overall strategic and operational development of the Institute and oversees its rapidly growing research programs. She also works closely with the Board of Directors to enhance the Institute’s impact and strengthen its strategic partnerships and resources. Prior to joining the Institute, she worked at Huntsman Gay Global Capital, a private equity firm focused on middle-market companies. She previously also worked at Deloitte Consulting in New York City, where she was instrumental in establishing the Growth & Innovation practice by drawing on the theories of disruptive innovation to help clients create new growth businesses. Ann led projects for clients in a number of industries, including: pharmaceutical, biotech, telecommunications, travel, professional services, and insurance. She has also spent time as a strategic analyst for Elan Pharmaceuticals, an Irish biotechnology company. Ann earned a BA from Duke University, where she studied the political economies of developing nations, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. See more at: http://www.christenseninstitute.org/our-team/ann-christensen/#sthash.DT0qxM28.dpuf

Hide bio

During his 20 years with HCC Global, Franck Guilloteau led multiple projects, spanning industry segments from aerospace and consumer products to software and fitness. As former Chief Technology Officer, Mr. Guilloteau took the lead role in developing Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings and knowledge management systems used by HCC’s global partners, while keeping HCC Global on the leading edge of technological advancements in multimedia, IT, e-commerce, and product development.Mr. Guilloteau was Director of TMIT Global, a non-profit medical research organization dedicated to driving adoption of high-impact clinical solutions in patient safety and healthcare performance improvement. He led operations at TMIT Global in Austin, TX, and coordinated activities related to TMIT’ Global’s research and scholarship programs. He also led the Greenlight Program, a national effort focused on building business cases and clinico-economic models to “green-light” quality and patient safety investments. Over the last several years, Greenlight has targeted healthcare-acquired infections, as well as medical imaging research on the over-use, misuse, and underuse of imaging studies using the “5 Rights of Imaging^®” as a framework. He also led the team involved in development of SpeakerLink^®, a website where healthcare organizations can find and engage patient advocates focused on improving caring in their communities. He was involved in the development of the Computerize Prescriber Order Entry (CPOE) Simulator used by The Leapfrog Group to measure effectiveness of deployed HIT systems in hospitals and ambulatory settings.In addition to his expertise in engineering and product development, he has lived in several countries, which provides him with a unique multicultural perspective as well as fluency in three languages. Mr. Guilloteau received a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Texas at Austin, and subsequently pursued a fellowship in Biomedical Engineering with a minor in product development.

Hide bio

Casey Clements, MD, PhD, describes himself as a ‘recovering researcher’ who now works on evidence based practice change and implementation.  As Associate Practice Chair of Emergency Medicine at Mayo Clinic, he focuses on multidisciplinary and interdepartmental improvement projects in Rochester and across the Midwest.  His first love and academic focus remains sepsis, emergency infection, and critical care. As director of the Mayo Clinic ED Sepsis Program and primary investigator of the Mayo ED Sepsis Biobank, Dr. Clements has led and participated in the last five improvement projects surrounding sepsis at Mayo.  Currently, he is working on diffusion and advocacy with national organizations to improve systems surrounding sepsis outcomes and metrics.

Dr. Clements has spoken multiple times to the TMIT Community of Practice audience on sepsis.  See his presentations at the following links:

• Sepsis: A 2019 Update on Critical Issues
• Sepsis: Acute Care Part 2

Hide bio

Jeanne M. Huddleston, MD, FACP, FHM, is a past President of the Society of Hospital Medicine, the founder of Hospital Medicine and past Program Director of the Hospital Medicine Fellowship at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN. She is the former Chairperson of Mayo Clinic’s Mortality Review Subcommittee, a multi-disciplinary group of providers that review every death in search of where the health care delivery system may have failed the providers and/or the patient. She received her MD degree in 1993 from the College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University. She completed her residency in internal medicine and advanced general medicine fellowship at Mayo Clinic. Dr. Huddleston is a Harvard Macy Scholar (both in the Physician Educator and the Leadership Programs) and alumnus of the Health Forum/AHA Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship. Dr. Huddleston has received Masters’ Degrees in both Clinical Research and Industrial Engineering. This education equipped her scholarly translation of systems engineering to health care delivery in an effort to improve the value of the healthcare experience for patients, their families and the providers through her work in mortality reviews and patient threat safety. She has led the mortality review program of more than 10,000 patients that has led to a dramatic impact on the quality of care there and she now leads an international collaborative and has engaged multiple hospitals that are putting her innovations to work.  Dr. Huddleston’s work has been core to the Emerging Threats Community of Practice led by Global Patient Safety Forum members.  See her presentations at the following links:

• Mortality Reviews and Patient Safety: A 2019 Update
• End of Life Care: Learning from Mortality Reviews
• Sepsis and Triage: Maximizing Safety of Incoming Patients
• Sepsis: Bringing it All Together Part 3
• Sepsis: Acute Care Part 2
• Sepsis: The Basics Part 2
• Failure to Rescue: Bedside Patient Rescue – A Great Opportunity
• Mayo Clinic Mortality Review Presentations at the Texas Medical Center Threat Safety R&D Community of Practice
• Saving Lives Putting Mortality Reviews to Work – It does pay off!
• Learning from Collaboration on Mortality Reviews: The Journey
• Learn from Mortality Review AND the Living: Part 2 – A Deeper Dive
• Learn from Mortality Review AND the Living: Next Generation Safety Learning System

Hide bio

Outcome Engenuity, LLC was founded in 1997 by CEO David Marx, a pioneer of the Just Culture movement. The firm originally addressed safety issues and human factors in aviation and offered expertise in post-event investigation and analysis. With the unique combination of systems engineering, human factors, and the law, Marx adopted and expanded the concepts of ‘Just Culture’ to help improve the management of human error.

Spurred by the Institute of Medicine’s 1999 seminal study, To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System, and recognizing the need for a Just Culture approach, Outcome Engenuity began focusing on healthcare. The study showed that 98,000 people died annually from medical errors – a number which has only increased in the intervening years. In 2003, Marx wrote “Patient Safety and the ‘Just Culture’: A Primer for Health Care Executives” for the National Institutes of Health.

For more than two decades Outcome Engenuity has advanced the concept of Just Culture and its role in the design of effective socio-technical systems. We integrate systems engineering, human factors science, and even the law into unique strategies that help organizations transform to a Just Culture, effectively investigate events, and manage risk.

David Marx has spoken to the multiple times to the TMIT Community of Practice audience on Just Culture .  See his presentations at the following links:

• Just Culture – High Impact Case Studies
• Just Culture – Voices from the Frontline
• Just Culture in 2017 and Beyond

Hide bio

J. Michael Henderson, MD, is Chief Medical Officer at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the former Chief Quality Officer at the Cleveland Clinic. His interest in quality was initially triggered in the surgical arena, implementing standardized approaches to preoperative processes, and becoming a champion for the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program of the American College of Surgeons. In 2005, he embarked on an expansion of Quality and Patient Safety for the Cleveland Clinic. His leadership support in establishing the Quality and Patient Safety Institute has provided a central coordinating quality focus across the more than 20,000 employees. This Institute collaborates with the clinical and support departments to align quality outcomes and patient safety into daily practice for the entire healthcare team. The focus of this work is to make daily practice patient-centric, clinically relevant, operationally effective, regulatory compliant, and academically appealing. Dr. Henderson is a subject matter expert on the advisory board of the Emerging Threats Community of Practice launched in 2019. He has been a collaborator on the GPSF team in its patient safety awareness work with the World Health Organization and has been a leading speaker in the TMIT Patient Safety Community of Practice.

• The Quality Journey: The CEO and CMO View

Hide bio

Nancy Conrad created the Conrad Foundation in 2008 to energize and engage students in science and technology through unique entrepreneurial opportunities. By enabling young minds to connect education, innovation, and entrepreneurship, the Foundation helps provide a bold platform for enriching the innovative workforce of the future. Ms. Conrad’s interest in patient safety began as a result of the death of her husband, astronaut Charles “Pete” Conrad. On July 8, 1999, while motorcycling, Pete ran off the road and crashed. His injuries were first thought to be minor, but he died from internal bleeding about six hours later. Ms. Conrad’s compelling story serves to personalize the need for patients and their families to take responsibility for their care, as well as to highlight the need for systemic changes in the quality of care. Ms. Conrad was co-founder and co-chairman of fundraising of the Community Emergency Healthcare Initiative. This program was designed to measurably affect preventable injury and death occurring in emergency departments. She established the Pete Conrad National Patient Safety Award to recognize global contributors in patient safety.

Hide bio

Christopher R. Peabody, MD, MPH is a practicing Emergency Physician in California and Clinical Instructor at the University of California, San Francisco. He is also the Director of the UCSF Acute Care Innovation Center, an initiative of the UCSF Department of Emergency Medicine, which develops novel ways to deliver Emergency and Acute Care reliably and safely by developing new technology and validating best practices. He has a strong commitment to public service and healthcare delivery to vulnerable populations. Dr. Peabody completed his residency at one of the busiest safety-net hospitals in the country, Los Angeles County Hospital, and was the Chief Resident in Emergency Medicine at the University of Southern California. He attended medical school at the University of California San Francisco, and completed an MPH at Harvard University on a Zuckerman Fellowship. Dr. Peabody’s current interests lie in quality improvement and patient safety, especially related to underserved populations. He has extensive experience in emergency care and disaster response internationally, having served in Haiti and China. He is a member of the content leadership development team for CareUniversity and applies his expertise in emergency care, public health, and international healthcare performance improvement to meeting the needs of both consumers and caregivers. Dr. Peabody provides vital input to the Emerging Threats Community of Practice and the Med Tac Bystander Care Program.

Hide bio

Dr. McDowell is a Director of TMIT Global and on the Global Innovations Team of the Global Patient Safety Forum, and is the Medical Director of Integrated Pain Solutions. He is a trained specialist in urology, urologic oncology, anesthesiology, pain management, and patient safety. He has served as an instructor at The University of Ohio for both the Department of Urology and the Department of Surgery. He has also served as the Director of Sabine Urology Outpatient Clinic and the Chief of Urology at Brackenridge Hospital in Austin, TX. Dr. McDowell has been involved in breakthrough research at the Gynecology Clinic of the Southwest Foundation for Research and Development, and at the Department of Cell Biology at The University of Texas’ M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.  Dr. McDowell is leader of our opioid crisis work and a subject matter expert on the Emerging Threats Community of Practice. He has spoken frequently with Dr. Denham on The 5 Rights of Pain Management developed in association with TMIT. He is an expert interviewed on this topic in the Discovery Network film Surfing the Healthcare Tsunami produced by TMIT.

Hide bio

Stephen J. Swensen, MD, MMM, FACR,

is the former Medical Director for Leadership and Organization Development. He has served as the Director for Quality and Associate Dean for Value. He is Professor in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. Under his leadership the Quality Academy and the Value Creation System were established. In these programs, several thousand staff are trained each year. There are more than 13,000 certified Bronze, Silver, and Gold Quality Fellows.

Dr. Swensen chaired the Department of Radiology from 1998-2006. His leadership team used Lean-Sigma and Baldrige methods to improve the value of care for patients provided by 1,200 staff, who performed more than one million exams annually. During his tenure the department was recognized as the #1 radiology practice in the country (Medical Imaging) and the most patient-centered (Diagnostic Imaging).

He holds a Master of Medical Management degree from Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz School of Public Policy and Management. He received his MD from the University of Wisconsin. His residency training was at Mayo Clinic and his Thoracic Radiology Fellowship at Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Dr. Swensen is a member of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement faculty. He served as the healthcare member of The Conference Board’s U.S. Quality Council. He is past President of two international societies, the Fleischner Society and the Society of Thoracic Radiology. He chaired the American College of Radiology’s Quality Metrics Committee and led the RSNA’s Continuous Quality Improvement Initiative. He is a member of the AAMC Integrating Quality Steering Committee. He founded the Big Sky Quality Roundtable and the Keystone Quality Officer Group, and co-founded the Sun Valley Assembly.

He has been Principal Investigator of three NIH grants related to lung cancer screening with CT and diffuse infiltrative lung disease. He has authored two books and more than 130 peer-reviewed articles.

Dr. Swensen is a leading expert on caregiver burnout and has been a frequent speaker to the Patient Safety Community of Practice membership. He is the lead subject matter expert on burn out as an Emerging Threat to Medical Centers and our lead expert on the Community of Practice.

Hide bio

Dr. Pulido is a Venezuelan physician with specialties in cardiology and internal medicine. He is currently the Executive Director of the PanAmerican Federation of Associations of Medical Schools, Caracas, and also a 2009 Fellow of the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative. He has participated in the dynamic evolution of a leading technical university in Caracas. In Public Policy, as Minister of Health and Social Welfare, he initiated the restructuring of the Ministry and the decentralization of operations towards the Venezuelan States. In International Medical Education, as the Executive Director of the PanAmerican Federation of Associations of Medical School, PAFAMS, he has focused on the modernization and involvement of medical schools in healthcare reforms using the new information technology, management, and curricular updating as basic instruments.

Hide bio

Samir Toubassy, MBA, is currently CEO of Global Education Partners; an Advanced Leadership Senior Fellow at Harvard; and a former President of The Olayan Development Corporation and former Group Vice President. The Olayan Group is one of the largest privately-held global business conglomerates through its Riyadh, Athens, London, and New York offices. After working with The Olayan Group for 30 years, Mr. Toubassy continues to serve as a Senior Advisor and member of the Executive Committee. He served for several years as a member of Coca-Cola Beverages; Coca-Cola Hellenic; and Frigoglass group of companies; and as a Senior Advisor to Crédit Suisse and a member of the Advisory Board for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Mr. Toubassy is a Trustee and Vice Chairman of the Nomination and Governance Committee of the Thunderbird School of Global Management. He is a member of the Advisory Board for the Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge University; and a member of the Dean’s Council, John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He also serves on the board of the American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA), a voluntary organization working for the Middle East. For the past 12 years, Mr. Toubassy has been actively involved in the World Economic Forum. Prior to joining The Olayan Group, Mr. Toubassy worked with the Ford Foundation in public administration reform in the Middle East. He also worked for the American University of Beirut and the University of California system-wide administrations. Mr. Toubassy holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the American University of Beirut, and an MBA from Golden Gate University in San Francisco.

Hide bio

David C. Classen, MD, MS, is Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO) at Pascal Metrics in Washington, DC. Previously, he was Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and a Vice Senior Partner at CSC, and leads led CSC’s safety and quality of healthcare initiatives. Dr. Classen is also an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Utah and an Active Consultant in Infectious Diseases at The University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City, Utah. He received his medical degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine and a Master’s of Science degree in medical informatics from the University of Utah School of Medicine. He served as Chief Medical Resident at the University of Connecticut. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases. He was the chair of Intermountain Health Cares Clinical Quality Committee for Drug Use and Evaluation, and was the initial developer of patient safety research and patient safety programs at Intermountain Healthcare. In addition, he developed, implemented, and evaluated a CPOE program at LDS Hospital that significantly improved the safety of medication use.

Hide bio

Edward Kelley, PhD, currently serves as Coordinator and Head of Strategic Programmes for WHO Patient Safety. His responsibilities include the development of new programs and partnerships; oversight of WHO Patient Safety presence in London and Baltimore; and leadership on several key programmes within WHO Patient Safety. Prior to joining WHO, Dr. Kelley directed the only ongoing national examination of healthcare quality and disparities in the United States as the Director of the U.S. National Healthcare Reports for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). These reports track levels and changes in quality of care for the American healthcare system at the national and state level, as well as disparities in quality and access across priority populations.

Dr. Kelley also directed the 28-country Health Care Quality Improvement (HCQI) Project of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development. Previously, Dr. Kelley served as a Quality Assurance Advisor for URC’s Quality and Performance Institute while also serving as Scientist in the Operations Research Division for the USAID-sponsored Quality Assurance Project (QAP) and Partnerships for Health Reform Project Plus (PHRPlus). In these capacities he worked for 10 years in West and North Africa and Latin America, directing research on the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness in Niger.

Dr. Kelley and his team were featured in both TMIT Discovery Channel documentaries.

Hide bio

Hilary J. Schmidt, PhD, is an advanced education expert with extensive experience applying principles and research from the behavioral sciences to the design of highly effective health sciences education. She has a PhD in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and has dedicated her professional life to translating research on how people learn into best practices for teaching, learning and assessment. She has worked in both academia (17 years) and in the Pharmaceutical industry (9 years) has expertise in cognitive psychology, education research, instructional design and outcomes assessment.

In academia, Dr. Schmidt founded and lead three centers for teaching and learning at NY area medical Schools including Columbia University Medical Center, SUNY-Downstate, and UMDNJ-Newark. She has authored books on study and testing skills, for medical students, and has published extensively in the field of medical education. In industry, at Sanofi pharmaceuticals she provided strategic leadership to the groups responsible for Independent Medical Education Grants, Investigator Initiated Research Trials, Transparency, and Medical Affairs Compliance Training.

She is a member of the Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions (ACEHP) and served as the Chair of the Industry Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions from 2011-13. She was a nominated member of the AMA Task Force on Industry Provider Collaboration in CME and served a s the Annual Meeting Chair for that organization in 2012. She is the recipient of the ACEHP’s Presidents Award 2013 for service provided to the organization. She is a frequent invited speaker at medical education conferences.

She recently co-founded (2014) the Calibre Institute for Quality Medical Education whose mission is to “Leverage Best-in-Class Education to Improve Patient-Care and Lower Healthcare Costs”.

Hide bio

Mace Wolf began his career as the creator of the first Windows based practice management systems for medicine in 1992. These solutions were being deployed at several university hospitals and large physician practices including those of Temple University and the University of Arizona by 1994. Mace’s EDI expertise had him creating the singular EDI client software and protocols for Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Northern California by 1995. He then obtained several database patents pertinent to large datasets and analytics.Today, Mace is focused on the convergence of risk management and healthcare delivery. Current customers include over 30 Medicare Advantage plans, most of which are focused on end-of-life care for dual eligibles in addition to several physician groups, ten PACE companies, a hospice, licensed homecare agencies, and a vision plan. At Cognify, Mace is responsible for everything from financial and claims adjudication systems to electronic health records, enrollment, medication management, logistics systems, and government mandated data collection, submission, compliance and analytics.Mace is also the developer of a unique fda approved dosage management system for an international pharmaceutical company and is also the inventor of several privacy management patents pending. He is a leader of integration and the system development serving CareUniversity and its initiatives that serve both consumers and caregivers.He spends his life at the leading edge of healthcare delivery, quality, risk management, and patient safety.

Hide bio

One of the key thought leaders to emerge in American healthcare in the past decade, John J. Nance brings a rich and varied professional background to the task of helping doctors, administrators, boards, and front-line staff alike survive and prosper during the most profoundly challenging upheaval in the history of modern medicine. Having helped pioneer the renaissance in patient safety as one of the founders of the National Patient Safety Foundation in 1997, his efforts (and healthcare publications) are dedicated to reforming American healthcare from a reactive cottage industry to an effective and safe system of prevention and wellness. A lawyer, Air Force and airline pilot, prolific internationally-published author, national broadcaster, and renowned professional speaker, John’s leadership is propelled by a deep commitment.

As a native Texan, John grew up in Dallas, where he earned his bachelor’s degree and a Juris Doctor degree from SMU, and is still a licensed Texas attorney. Named Distinguished Alumnus of SMU for 2002, and distinguished Alumnus for Public Service of the SMU Dedman School of Law in 2010, he is also a decorated Air Force pilot veteran of Vietnam and Operations Desert Storm/Desert Shield, and a Lieutenant Colonel in the USAF Reserve, well-known for his pioneering development of Air Force human factors flight safety education, and one of the civilian pioneers of Crew Resource Management (CRM). John has piloted a wide variety of jet aircraft, including most of Boeing’s line and the Air Force C-141, and has logged more than 13,900 hours of flight time since earning his first pilot license in 1965; he is still a current pilot. He was a flight officer for Braniff International Airlines and a Boeing 737 Captain for Alaska Airlines, and is an internationally recognized air safety advocate, best known to North American television audiences as Aviation Analyst for ABC World News and Aviation Editor for Good Morning America.

Before joining ABC, John logged countless appearances on national shows such as Larry King Live, PBS Hour with Jim Lehrer, Oprah, NPR, Nova, the Today Show, and many others. He is also the nationally-known author of 20 major books, including the acclaimed Why Hospitals Should Fly (2009), and, with co-author Kathleen Bartholomew, Charting the Course (2012). He has also written five non-fiction and 13 international fiction bestsellers. Pandora’s Clock and Medusa’s Child both aired as major, successful two-part mini-series on television. Why Hospitals Should Fly won the prestigious “Book of the Year” award for 2009 from the American College of Healthcare Executives.

John J. Nance has become one of America’s most dynamic and effective professional speakers, presenting riveting, pivotal programs on success and safety in human organizations to a wide variety of audiences, including business corporations and healthcare professionals. He and fellow author Kathleen Bartholomew (Charting the Course and Ending Nurse-to-Nurse Hostility: Why Nurses Eat their Young and Each Other) are highly sought-after for their watershed presentations to boards, senior leaders, physicians, nurses, and staff on quality and patient safety. He is a pioneering and well-known advocate of using the lessons from the recent revolution in aviation safety to equally revolutionize the patient safety performance of hospitals, doctors, nurses, and all of healthcare.

Mr. Nance is founder of the series Red Cover Reports for patient safety built on the concepts of the NTSB reports, pilots call “Blue Cover Reports”.  He is a subject matter expert for the Emerging Threats Community of Practice.

Hide bio

Before turning to healthcare as a career in 1994, Kathleen Bartholomew held positions in marketing, business, communications, and teaching. It was these experiences that allowed her to look at the culture of healthcare from a unique perspective and speak poignantly to the issues affecting providers and the challenges facing organizations today.Kathleen Bartholomew, has been a national speaker for the past 12 years. As the manager of a large surgical unit in Seattle, Kathleen quickly recognized that creating a culture where staff felt a sense of belonging was critical to retention. During her tenure as manager, staff, physician, and patient satisfaction reached the top 10% as she implemented her down-to earth strategies. Despite the nursing shortage, Kathleen could always depend on a waiting list of nurses for both units.Kathleen’s bachelor’s degree is in Liberal Arts with a strong emphasis on Sociology. This background laid the foundation for her to correctly identify the norms and particular to healthcare specifically physician-nurse relationships and nurse-to-nurse hostility. For her master’s thesis she authored Speak Your Truth: Proven Strategies for Effective Nurse-Physician Communication, which is the only book to date which addresses physician-nurse issues. In December 2005, Kathleen resigned her position as manager in order to write a second book on horizontal violence in nursing. The expression “why nurses eat their young” has existed for many years in the nursing profession (and has troubled many in the profession). In her book, Ending Nurse to Nurse Hostility (2006), Kathleen offers the first comprehensive and compassionate look at the etiology, impact, and solutions to horizontal violence. Kathleen won the best media depiction of nursing for her op editorial in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and in 2010 she was nominated by Health Leaders Media as one of the top 20 people changing healthcare in America.Kathleen’s passion for creating healthy work environments is infectious. She is an expert on hospital culture and speaks internationally to hospital boards, the military, leadership, and staff about safety, communication, cultural change, and power. With her husband, John J. Nance, she co-authored Charting the Course: Launching Patient-Centric Healthcare in 2012, which is the sequel to Why Hospitals Should Fly (2008). From the bedside to the boardroom, Kathleen applies research to practice with humor and an ethical call to excellence that ignites and inspires health caregivers and leaders to unprecedented levels of excellence.

Hide bio

Susan Sheridan, MBA, MIM, is the Deputy Director of Patient Engagement at the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. She is responsible for creating networks and engaging patients across the nation to provide broad-based input on the development and execution of PCORI’s research. Sheridan became involved in patient safety after her family experienced two serious medical system failures. Her husband, Pat, died in 2002 after his diagnosis of spinal cancer failed to be communicated. Their son, Cal, suffered brain damage called kernicterus five days after his birth in 1995 when his neonatal jaundice was untreated.Sheridan is Co-Founder and a Past President of Parents of Infants and Children with Kernicterus, which works in partnership with private and public health agencies to eradicate kernicterus. In 2003, she co-founded Consumers Advancing Patient Safety (CAPS), a nonprofit organization that seeks a safe, compassionate and just health care system through proactive partnership between consumers and providers of care. Sheridan served at President of CAPS from 2003-2010. From 2004-2011, she led the World Health Organization’s Patients for Patient Safety initiative, which embraces the collective wisdom of the patient, patient empowerment and patient-centered care. Sheridan received her bachelor’s degree from Albion College, and a Masters of International Management and Masters of Business Administration from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Hide bio

Terry Wheat, RN, MPH, serves as the Director of Patient Care Services & Chief Nursing Officer at Shriners Hospital for Children – Chicago. Under her leadership, the hospital received the 2011 and 2013 Outstanding Nursing Quality Award for pediatric hospital from the American Nurses Association. Mrs. Wheat is on the board of directors for Sinai Health Systems, which includes Mt. Sinai Hospital, Holy Cross Hospital, and Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital. She serves as the chair of the quality & safety committee. Mrs. Wheat has served on the Illinois Emergency Management Service advisory board for seven years representing pediatric rehabilitation. The Governor of Illinois and the Illinois Department of Public Health recently recognized her for dedication and service on the EMSC advisory board.Mrs. Wheat is an alumna of the University of Illinois, where she obtained both a bachelor’s in nursing and a master’s in public health in health policy administration. She currently serves as adjunct faculty at the University of St. Francis and the University of Illinois College of Nursing.

Hide bio

Mary E. Foley, PhD, RN, is a Clinical Professor at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) School of Nursing and is the Director in the Center for Nursing Research and Innovation at UCSF. She is the Assistant Director for the Master’s Entry Program in Nursing at UCSF, and teaches in the Masters in Health Administration and Interprofessional Leadership (MS-HAIL) course at UCSF. Mary worked with the Collaborative Alliance for Nursing Outcomes (CALNOC) since 2004 and in January 2017 she will serve as Chairperson of the CALNOC Board of Directors. Mary is past president of the American Nurses Association and the National Student Nurses Association. She was a nurse for 19 years at Saint Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco, where she worked a staff nurse, Director of Nursing, and Safety Officer.

A registered nurse for more than 40 years, Foley continues to teach, write and lecture, promoting safe care for workers and patients nationally and internationally.  She served on the board of the National Patient Safety Foundation, an advisor to the Partnership for Patient Safety (p4ps) and is a member of the TMIT Patient and Family panel.  Since 2012, she has worked with Karen Curtiss to improve family involvement in patient safety. She is a nursing consultant to “Safe and Sound in the Hospital” and PartnerHealth and she and Karen were faculty members in the Hospital Quality Institute HEN2.0 initiative in CA. She is proud of her membership and leadership on behalf of the Nursing Section of GLMA.

Foley received her nursing diploma in 1973 from New England Deaconness Hospital School of Nursing, her BSN in 1976 from Boston University School of Nursing in Massachusetts, and her Master’s of Science in Nursing Administration and Occupational Health from UCSF in 1994. She received her PhD in Nursing from UCSF 2010, and was elected as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in 2013.

Dr. Foley is an advisor to the Emerging Threats Community of Practice with special interest in multiple areas of patient and caregiver safety, especially as they apply to nurses. She is also a advisor to the Med Tac Bystander Care certification program as an educator and leadership expert.

Hide bio