Dr. Brandt is a professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science and executive director of the Peter Lamy Center on Drug Therapy and Aging. Since joining the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, she has expanded geriatric training opportunities available, including the geriatrics/palliative care pathway, ASHP-accredited geriatrics residency, and two-year post-PharmD fellowship. She has worked on various interdisciplinary teams across numerous practice settings and is currently leading initiatives to integrate sustainable pharmacist-directed services to help older adults with multiple co-morbidities at the MedStar Center for Successful Aging. Dr. Brandt has been active in promoting optimal care for older adults and has affected this through her educational, clinical, as well as health care policy work. She has directed projects with multiple stakeholders focusing on Medicare Part D Medication Therapy Management programs, high risk medications, and medication stewardship. Her public policy advocacy occurs on both a state and national level. She is one of the authors of the 2012, 2015 and 2018-2019 American Geriatrics Society Beer’s Criteria and the past president and board chairman of American Society of Consultant Pharmacists.
Dr. Brock is Medical Director at Telligen and served as the clinical director of the Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization’s National Coordinating Center in the 11th Statement of Work (SOW). She currently serves as a clinical advisor to the Data Validation contractor for the Network of Quality Improvement and Innovation Contractors (NQIIC), a new consolidated national improvement vehicle for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ 12<sup>th</sup> SOW. QIN-QIOs and NQIICs seek to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, economy, and quality of services delivered to Medicare beneficiaries. She is working to adapt and apply implementation research methods to the ocean of data collected through these large-scale improvement programs, as a standardizable technique for distilling actionable knowledge from a set of widely variable community experiences.
Dr. Brock spent 18 years as an urgent care physician, and the past 20 years providing clinical and quality improvement expertise to a variety of CMS-funded projects. She is also served as a co-Principle Investigator for Project ACHIEVE, a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) project to rigorously evaluate the effectiveness of transitional care strategies.
Pascale Carayon is a Leon and Elizabeth Janssen Professor in the College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Additional bio information forthcoming.
Dr. Handler is an Associate Professor with a primary appointment in the Division of Geriatric Medicine where he is the Director for Geriatric Telemedicine Programs. Steven also serves as the Co-Director and Medical Director for Telemedicine and Health Information for the RAVEN (Reduce AVoidable hospitalization using Evidence-based interventions for Nursing facilities in Western Pennsylvania) CMS Innovation Award. The main goal of this innovation award, which is in 35 partner nursing homes, is to reduce potentially avoidable hospitalizations by using multiple components including telemedicine.
Steven completed his medical school training at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, residency at Tufts University and Fellowship in Geriatric Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. He is a practicing geriatrician with direct patient care responsibilities in the nursing home and hospital settings. His primary research area focuses on medication and patient safety primarily in the nursing home setting. For the past decade, Steven’s research has been at the intersection of biomedical informatics and geriatrics utilizing an active medication monitoring system to detect and manage adverse drug events among older nursing home residents. More recently, he has focused on the application of telemedicine in the long-term and post-acute care settings. He has published over 95 peer-reviewed articles in various geriatrics, nursing, informatics, health services, and patient safety journals.
Dr. Amy Helwig currently serves as the Executive Vice President of RTI International’s Commercial Health division and Center for Health Care Advancement, an industry leader in helping to design, deploy and optimize value-based care programs and analytic solutions for patient engagement and population health. Dr. Helwig is recognized nationally for developing innovative programs in quality, safety and Health IT to drive value and improve patient outcomes
Prior to RTI, Dr. Helwig was Chief Quality Officer and Vice President, Quality Improvement and Performance at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Insurance Services Division where she led quality, safety and performance programs over all insurance lines of business covering 3.4 million lives. This included leading the development and implementation of quality programing for all value and alternative payment models and outcome-based centers of excellence.
Earlier in her career, Dr. Helwig served as Deputy Director of the Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality where led the development of common formats for national patient safety event reporting and AHRQ’s Patient Safety Organization program, as well as prototyping diagnostic safety measures. She was on the team that developed the national scorecard of patient safety measures for the CMS Partnership for Patients. As the Director, HIT Safety and Clinical Informatics and Acting Chief Medical Officer at the U.S. Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology she guided national quality improvement and population health programs and promoted development of new policies for health IT safety and usability.
Dr. Helwig is board-certified in both clinical informatics and family medicine and a graduate of the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Carol Keohane is currently Vice President for Quality, Safety and Experience at Kaiser Permanente. In this role, she is responsible for coordinating performance improvement system design, building capability and partnering with functions across Kaiser Permanente linking strategy to execution to optimize outcomes in the areas of quality, safety and service nationally.
Prior to joining Kaiser Permanente, Ms. Keohane served for eight years as the Assistant Vice President of Patient Safety for the Controlled Risk Insurance Company/Risk Management Foundation of the Harvard Medical Institutions (CRICO/RMF). In this position, Ms. Keohane was responsible for CRICO’s patient safety operations and programmatic initiatives aimed at mitigating risk and vulnerabilities within member organizations.
Ms. Keohane also served for ten years as Program Director for the Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she had oversight of a large patient safety research portfolio and was responsible for directing all research efforts conducted through the Center. In addition to extensive experience in patient safety and health services research, Ms. Keohane has broad clinical experience in high- risk obstetrics and neonatology.
Ms. Keohane received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire and a Master of Science in Health Informatics and Management from the University of Massachusetts. She currently serves as a Committee Member for the following organizations: American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Committee on Patient Safety and Quality Improvement, and Institute for Healthcare Improvement Workforce Safety Subcommittee. She also served as a member of the Massachusetts Healthcare Safety & Quality Consortium and Advisory Board for the Perinatal-Neonatal Quality Improvement Network of Massachusetts.
Ms. Keohane has published extensively on various patient safety issues including the evaluation of various health information technologies and their impact on patient care and clinician workflow. Ms. Keohane has participated as a reviewer for the Journal of the American Medical Association, Critical Care Medicine, and the International Journal for Quality in Health Care. In 2012, she was invited to serve on the editorial board for the Journal of Patient Safety.
Dr. Meisel is the System Director of Medication Safety for M Health Fairview, an integrated health system based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In this role he is responsible for all aspects of medication safety improvement, as well as related measurement, reporting, educational and cultural initiatives. Dr. Meisel has served as faculty for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement safety since 1997.
Dr. Meisel received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree in 1979 and his BS in Pharmacy in 1977 from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science. Prior to his affiliation with Fairview, he was Clinical Pharmacy Coordinator at St. Joseph's Hospital in St. Paul and Chief of Pharmacy, Keams Canyon Indian Hospital in Arizona.
Dr. Meisel is a member of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, the Minnesota Society of Health-System Pharmacists, the American Society of Professionals in Patient Safety and the Rho Chi Society. In 2000 he was named one of the state’s top 100 most influential health care leaders by Minnesota Physician. Dr. Meisel was the winner of the 2000 Innovative Solutions Award by the National Patient Safety Foundation, the 2002 Best Practices Award from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, and the 2002 Cheers Award from the Institute for Safe Medication Practices. In 2003, the Minnesota Society of Health-System Pharmacists named him the Pharmacist of the Year. He was a finalist Excellence in Medication Use Safety Award from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists in 2004 and again in 2014. In 2005 he was the winner of the University Health-System Consortium (UHC) Excellence in Quality and Safety Award. In 2018, Meisel was the winner of the Sylvia Moss Brown Award for Excellence issued by the American Excess Insurance Exchange (AEIX).
In 2012, Dr. Meisel became one of the first Certified Professionals in Patient Safety under the auspices of the National Patient Safety Foundation. Meisel has authored or co-authored 36 publications.
Barbara is the Patient Safety Officer at Dignity Health, located in San Francisco, California.
She is responsible for regulatory readiness, medication safety, management of controlled substances, reduction of hospital-acquired conditions, voluntary events reporting, and loss control/prevention. Under her leadership, CANDOR (Communications AND Optimal Resolution) and Just Culture were introduced for adoption.
Strengths: Strategic and collaborative leadership, implementer of transformative and large scale initiatives, patient-centric results, adoption of innovative solutions and investment in team/others.
She resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two children. She enjoys outdoor hiking and cycling adventures, yoga, travel and entertaining friends and family.
Leilani Schweitzer is the PEARL Patient Liaison for Stanford Health Care. In 2005, her son Gabriel died after a series of medical errors at Stanford Children’s Hospital. Since 2011, she has worked on Stanford’s efforts to be transparent and learn after unexpected medical outcomes. She uses her own experience to navigate between the often insular, legal and administrative sides of medical error; and the intricate, emotional side of the patient and family experience. Her work with patients, families, care providers and attorneys has given her a unique view of the importance and complex realities of disclosure and transparency. Leilani’s work has been discussed in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and on CNN.com. She has been featured on the Ted Radio Hour and RadioLab podcasts. Leilani’s TedX talk about the need for transparency and compassion in healthcare has been viewed more than 130,000 times.
Dr. Vogelsmeier is an Associate Professor at the Sinclair School of Nursing, University of Missouri and a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing. Dr. Vogelsmeier received her PhD in leadership and health-systems in 2008 and her master’s degree in adult and gerontological nursing in 1997, both from the University of Missouri. Her undergraduate nursing degree was obtained in 1989 from the University of Central Missouri. She has 30 years of practice in both acute and long-term care with extensive experience in leadership, quality improvement, and patient safety. Dr. Vogelsmeier’s area of research is focused on patient safety with an emphasis on reducing adverse events such as rehospitalizations and emergency department visits among nursing home residents and improving medication safety in nursing homes. She has research expertise in nursing home work processes including technology implementation and implementation of advanced practice registered nurse care coordination.
Sam R. Watson, MSA, MT(ASCP), CPPS, is the senior vice president of Field Engagement for the Michigan Health & Hospital Association (MHA). In this role, Watson leads member services and develops strategic relationships with stakeholders to further the mission of the MHA. Additionally, Watson provides executive leadership for the Education division and the MHA Keystone Center.
Over the years, Watson has led numerous efforts to build collaborative relationships across multiple entities in Michigan and beyond. Most recently, co-leading the creation of Superior Health Quality Alliance, an eight-organization consortium that addresses quality and safety through federally funded contracts. Prior to being named senior vice president of Field Engagement, Watson led the MHA Keystone Center in its efforts to improve patient safety and quality, including federally funded Hospital Engagement Networks, Hospital Improvement Innovation Networks and many statewide quality initiatives, with focus areas such as surgery, obstetrics, hospital-associated infections, emergency departments, sepsis, falls, pressure ulcers, venous thromboembolism and care transitions.
Under Watson’s leadership, the MHA Keystone Center was the recipient of the Eisenberg Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality Award and Dick Davidson Quality Milestone Award for healthcare improvement. Watson has recognized as one of the 50 Experts Leading the Field of Patient Safety by Becker’s Hospital Review, a leading healthcare publication.
Watson currently serves on several professional organizations and committees, including the boards of directors for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Christian Life Services – Holland Home, and Spectrum Health West Michigan.
Dr. Xiao is a human factors engineer and patient safety expert. He teaches human factors in health care based on a wide range of safety improvement operations experience in medical devices, electronic health record, root cause analysis, facility design, team communication, nursing work environment, and reduction of hospital acquired conditions. He directed human factors and patient safety science programs at a non-profit healthcare system, and has been conducting research related to healthcare human factors. His research informed key aspects of patient safety, such as usability and design of health information technology, team performance, leadership, clinical alarms, and improvement methodologies. He is the principal investigator of an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality funded patient safety learning lab to improve medication safety in community and ambulatory settings. He is funded by National Science Foundation to develop sensor-based pain assessment and user interfaces to health information. He is on editorial boards for the journal of Human Factors and Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making, and is a member of F1000 Medicine Faculty.
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