Leadership
Diverse in professional background but united by a shared mission, our Board of Directors is comprised of leaders in health technology, public policy, healthcare delivery, information technology, safety innovation, and patient advocacy.
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Leadership
Joe Kiani
Founder, Patient Safety Movement Foundation; Chairman & CEO of Masimo
Joe Kiani is responsible for creating the Patient Safety Movement Foundation & Coalition and the Patient Safety Science & Technology Summit. Mr. Kiani founded the Patient Safety Movement Foundation (PSMF) in 2013 with a mission to reduce the more than 200,000 preventable patient deaths that occur in U.S. hospitals every year. Under Mr. Kiani’s leadership, the Patient Safety Movement held the first Patient Safety Science & Technology Summit in January 2013 with President Clinton as the keynote speaker. Mr. Kiani has convened hundreds of leading clinicians, hospital CEOs, and medical technology CEOs from around the globe and at this Summit, launched an aggressive goal – ZERO patient deaths by 2020.
The Foundation is breaking down the silos between hospitals, medical technology companies, doctors, engineers and families of patients who have died needlessly. The mission of the PSMF is to: 1) Unify the healthcare ecosystem 2) Identify the challenges that are killing patients to create actionable solutions 3) Ask hospitals to implement Actionable Patient Safety Solutions 4) Promote transparency 5) Ask med tech companies to share the data their devices generate to create a Patient Data Super Highway and help identify at-risk patients 6) Correct misaligned incentives, and 7) Promote love and patient dignity.
As the founder, Chairman, and CEO of Masimo Corporation, a global medical technology innovator, Mr. Kiani has been a beacon for patient safety and innovation in healthcare for more than 20 years. Convinced that the use of adaptive signal processing could solve the problems of motion artifact and signal noise that plagued pulse oximetry–widely recognized as the 5th vital sign–he founded Masimo in 1989 to improve the accuracy of noninvasive patient monitoring.
Under his leadership, Masimo has grown from a “garage start up” into a successful publicly traded company (NASDAQ: MASI) employing more than 3,000 people worldwide and providing its market-leading Masimo SET® Measure-through Motion and Low Perfusion pulse oximetry technology to leading OEM patient monitoring manufacturers. Today, Masimo is an innovative powerhouse delivering key noninvasive medical breakthroughs, including: Masimo rainbow Pulse COOximetry™–the first noninvasive blood constituent monitoring platform to measure multiple blood constituents that previously required invasive procedures and help reduce risky blood transfusions.
Mr. Kiani’s dream of transforming patient care thrives today as he works with legislators in Washington, D.C., to affect public policy that supports innovation and promotes good healthcare decisions. In 2010, he created the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare to encourage and promote activities, programs, and research opportunities that improve patient safety and deliver advanced healthcare worldwide—fostering access to innovative medical solutions for those who may not otherwise benefit from their lifesaving capabilities. In 2011 he founded the Masimo Political Action Committee to spotlight the important issues that will shape healthcare policy.
Mr. Kiani has won many awards, including the Ernst & Young National Entrepreneur of The Year 2012 Life Sciences Award Winner.
Mr. Kiani believes in turning yesterday’s impossibilities into tomorrow’s possibilities and challenging the status quo. This is exactly what he and his company, Masimo, have done and are continuing to do, and his passion is to share this insight, knowledge, and the indomitable spirit of a true innovator to improve healthcare for Americans and patients around the world.
Steven J. Barker, PhD, MD
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Leadership
Steven J. Barker, PhD, MD
Chief Science Officer, Masimo
Dr. Barker received his B.S. in Physics from Harvey Mudd College in 1967, his PhD in Aeronautical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1972, and his MD from the University of Miami in 1981. He has reached the rank of tenured professor in both engineering (UCLA) and anesthesiology (UC Irvine, University of Arizona). He chaired the Department of Anesthesiology at UC Irvine from 1990 to 1995, and then at the University of Arizona from 1995 to 2013. He has published over 200 scholarly works, including 15 textbook chapters. Dr. Barker has served as president of the national organization of anesthesiology department chairs (AAPD) and of the Society for Technology in Anesthesia (STA), senior oral examiner for the American Board of Anesthesiology, and Section Editor for Technology for the journal Anesthesia and Analgesia.
During his 18-year tenure as anesthesiology chair at the University of Arizona, Dr. Barker was active in a number of governance roles outside of his department. He served as the hospital Director of Perioperative Services from 1996 through 2000. He was Chair of the Council of Clinical Department Heads from 2000 through 2003, and then chair of the clinical department heads working group. He served seven years as the American Society of Anesthesiologists Director for Academic Anesthesiology, representing all university anesthesiology departments at the ASA. Dr. Barker has been a productive academician, and has also participated actively in governance and administration at local, state, and national levels. He is now Professor Emeritus of Anesthesiology at the University of Arizona, and Chief Science Officer for Masimo Corporation.
In November 2015, Dr. Barker received the Lifetime Achievement Award from IAMPOV (Innovations and Applications of Monitoring Perfusion, Oxygenation, and Ventilation), “for championing the development of vitally important monitoring technologies and associated testing.” In January 2016, he received the J.S. Gravenstein Award from the Society for Technology in Anesthesia, “for his visionary understanding of the role of technology in anesthesia care and lifetime commitment to patient safety.” In April 2016, he received the “Distinguished Alumni Award” from Harvey Mudd College.
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Leadership
Robin Betts, MBA-HM, RN
Assistant Vice President Quality & Patient Safety
Robin Betts is the Assistant Vice President of Quality and Patient Safety for Intermountain Healthcare, a 22-hospital integrated system with 185 clinics, a medical group, and insurance company located in Utah and Idaho. In this role, Ms. Betts sets the vision for patient safety and quality for Intermountain Healthcare. She has responsibility to ensure system-wide compliance with applicable laws and regulations affecting quality and patient safety. She works closely with the organization’s Vice President/Chief Nursing Officer as well as directors of clinical programs and services to support innovation, promote best practice, implement standardized evidence-based practices, and drive data-driven quality and patient safety improvement across the organization.
Ms. Betts has 3o years of progressive healthcare experience, practicing as a registered nurse for 17 years. She possesses a strong background in healthcare information technology and served as the Assistant Director of IT for 25 acute care hospitals across the country. She moved into executive leadership driving quality, patient safety, and Lean 6 Sigma projects across a hospital system before joining Intermountain in her current role in the fall of 2012.
Ms. Betts holds a Master’s of Business Administration degree with a certificate in Healthcare Management from Brenau University in Gainesville, GA. Along with her nursing degree, she also holds a bachelor’s in Information Technology degree. Ms. Betts is also a graduate of Intermountain Healthcare’s Advanced Training Program in Healthcare Delivery Improvement and is an adjunct professor of Healthcare Quality and Risk Management for Weber State University’s MHA program in Utah.
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Leadership
Alicia Cole
Patient Safety Consultant
Alicia Cole had been a successful working actress whose only experience with healthcare was playing doctors on TV. All that changed, however, when she learned in 2006 that she needed a “routine” procedure to remove two small uterine fibroids. Originally, she was scheduled to be home in two days, but that never took place. She left the operating room with a fever, nausea, and pain, and her condition declined from there.
Five days later, during the evening dressing check, Alicia’s mother noticed a small black dot near the incision. In just over an hour, the dot morphed into a quarter-sized pustule. Right then and there, the doctor and Alicia’s mother performed a bedside surgical procedure, cutting open her abdomen and draining the toxic fluid. A terrified Alicia would eventually be diagnosed with multiple hospital-acquired infections including necrotizing fasciitis.
Alicia’s near-fatal case of flesh-eating disease turned her entire midsection into something out of a horror movie and her two-day hospital stay turned into: one month in ICU, two months in the hospital, six additional surgeries, near amputation of her leg, a year and two months of twice-a-day home health care for dressing changes, five months of daily hyperbaric oxygen chamber treatments and three years of treatment at a wound care center for an open, draining abdomen. Six years later, she is still in physical therapy and undergoing pelvic floor rehabilitation.
Alicia’s hospital was later cited for violation of five state laws and ten federal laws for patient safety, infection control, and unsanitary conditions in their operating rooms. An ICU nurse later shared that Alicia was his third patient with NF disease and the only one to survive.
With a talk-to-type program from her bed, Alicia began to share her experience via emails, blogs and social media to educate others. In 2008, she and her parents founded the Alliance for Safety Awareness for Patients (ASAP) as an education and awareness organization. Alicia became co-sponsor of California Senate Bill 158, a measure that helps ensure that hospitals maintain a sanitary environment and mandates public reporting of hospital-acquired infection rates, it also established training programs for hospital infection control professionals. The bill was signed into law in September 2008.
Alicia was also appointed to the state HAI Advisory Committee and has worked tirelessly on the Education and Public Reporting Subcommittee. This year, she also became a member of the State of Wyoming HAI Advisory Group and Chair of the Engagement Committee. She has worked with the Consumers Union Safe Patient Project, lobbied on Capitol Hill, presented at the CMS QualityNet Conference, and was among the inaugural class of patient advocates invited to contribute at the IHI National Quality Forum. All this between making her weekly doctor appointments and physical therapy!
Alicia is also currently a graduate certificate candidate in the Healthcare Management & Leadership Program at UCLA and consulted on the development of the school’s new Patient Advocate Program.
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Leadership
Omar Ishrak
Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, Medtronic
Omar Ishrak has served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Medtronic since June 2011. Medtronic is the world’s leading medical technology company, with more than $27 billion in annual revenue, and operations reaching more than 155 countries worldwide. Medtronic offers technologies, solutions and therapies to treat a wide range of medical conditions, including cardiac and vascular diseases, respiratory, neurological and spinal conditions, diabetes, and more. The Medtronic Mission is to alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life for millions of people around the world.
Since joining Medtronic, Omar has focused the company on three core strategies of Therapy Innovation, Economic Value and Globalization. These three strategies form the basis for Medtronic’s efforts to partner with its customers to drive high quality patient outcomes, expand patient access to healthcare, and lower costs in health care systems around the world. In 2014, Omar engineered the acquisition of Covidien, a $10 billion global manufacturer of surgical products and supplies. The acquisition of Covidien was the largest medical technology acquisition in the history of the industry.
Omar joined Medtronic from General Electric Company, where he spent 16 years, most recently as President and CEO of GE Healthcare Systems, a $12 billion division of GE Healthcare, with a broad portfolio of diagnostic, imaging, patient monitoring and life support systems. Omar also served as an Officer and a Senior Vice President of GE.
Earlier in his career, Omar amassed 13 years of technology development and business management experience, holding leadership positions at Diasonics/Vingmed, and various product development and engineering positions at Philips Ultrasound.
He grew up in Bangladesh, earned a Bachelor of Science Degree and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of London, King’s College.
Omar is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Asia Society, the leading educational organization dedicated to promoting mutual understanding and strengthening partnerships among peoples, leaders and institutions of Asia and the United States in a global context.
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Leadership
David Mayer, MD
Vice President, Quality and Safety, MedStar Health
David Mayer, MD, is vice president of Quality and Safety for MedStar Health. He is responsible for overseeing the infrastructure for clinical quality and its operational efficiency for MedStar and each of its entities. Dr. Mayer also designs and directs systemwide activity for patient safety and risk reduction programs.
Dr. Mayer joins MedStar from the University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago, Ill. Over the course of 10 years, he held numerous roles including co-executive director of the UIC Institute for Patient Safety Excellence, director of UIC Masters of Science Patient Safety Leadership Program, associate dean for Education, and associate chief medical officer for Quality and Safety Graduate Medical Education. Concurrent with his other roles, he served as vice chair for Quality and Safety for the Department of Anesthesiology, where he was an associate professor of Anesthesiology and director of Cardiac Anesthesiology. Dr. Mayer also founded and has led the Annual Telluride International Patient Safety Roundtable and Patient Safety Medical Student Summer Camp for the last eight years.
In addition, he has significant experience in the private sector as director of Medical Affairs of the Hospital Products Division of Abbott Laboratories and was president and founder of Esurg Corporation.
Dr. Mayer attended the University of Illinois at Chicago for both his undergraduate and medical degrees. He completed his internship and residency at Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center, followed by a fellowship in cardiac anesthesia. Additionally, he co-produced the patient safety educational film series titled “The Faces of Medical Error…From Tears to Transparency,” which won numerous awards including the prestigious Aegis Film Society Top Short Documentary Award.
Most recently, Dr. Mayer was presented with the 2013 Founders’ Award from the American College of Medical Quality for his outstanding contributions to quality management and improvement. Based on his commitment to teaching, service and patient advocacy, he also has received the University of Illinois/American Association of Medical Colleges Humanism in Medicine Award and was recognized by the Institute of Medicine in Chicago in 2010 with the Sprague Patient Safety Award.
He regularly presents and writes on topics related to quality and patient safety, and has received grant funding from the United States Department of Education, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation.
Dr. Jannicke Mellin-Olsen, MD, DPH
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Leadership
Dr. Jannicke Mellin-Olsen, MD, DPH
President, World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists
Dr Mellin-Olsen is cand. med. from the University of Trondheim, Norway, from 1982. In 1987, she was the first Norwegian female physician to complete her (voluntary) military services, which she did by serving for the UNIFIL Forces in South Lebanon. She got involved in patient safety initiatives during her residence training in Trondheim University Hospital where she got her specialty in 1992. She has worked for the Red Cross in Pakistan and Serbia. She was the medical director for Europe, Middle East and Africa for MedAire, Inc, based in Tampe, AZ, for ten years, dealing with remote medical advice, including for aviation and maritime. Since 2002, she has held a full time clinical post in Baerum Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
Both in her home country and internationally, Jannicke is known for her dedication to organizational work. She has been active in the Veterans’ organization and in national and international medical organisations. During her term in the European Board of Anaesthesiology, she chaired the Patient Safety and Quality Committee before becoming president. During her presidency, she was the driving force for the Helsinki Declaration on Patient Safety in Anaesthesiology, which was launched in 2010. Since then, this Declaration has been signed and supported in all regions of the world and has become the industry standard. She is currently the secretary of the European Society of Anaesthesiology and the president elect of the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists. In her home country, she is known as a promoter of a non-punitive approach to medical errors, according to the model of the NTSBs. She is particularly committed to human factors, communication and involvement of patients, relatives and clinical staff as experts to improve patient safety.
Jannicke’s publication list mainly contains articles and book chapters related to patient safety, edication and manpower. She is a well-known speaker at anaesthesiology meetings globally and holds several honorary positions.
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Leadership
Charlie Miceli, CPM
Chief Supply Chain Officer, Network Vice President University of Vermont Health Network
Miceli has set the vision and mission for the University of Vermont Medical Center Supply Chain operation, ranked #1 and #2 by the University Health System Consortium/Vizient in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. The effectiveness of the supply chain has supported the clinical mission and operations of the University of Vermont Medical Center, OneCare Vermont, and the University of Vermont Health Network
Miceli has also served as the Vice President of Information Systems for the University of Vermont Medical Center as well as the CIO for the OneCare Vermont Accountable Care Organization
Key accomplishments include sponsoring the successful integration of biomedical devices with the EPIC EHR, as well as championing interoperability of key clinical applications with EPIC (McKesson PACS).
Prior to joining Fletcher Allen/University of Vermont Medical Center in 2008, Miceli held leadership positions in supply chain, biomedical engineering, and support services at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Loyola University Medical Center, The University of Chicago Hospital and Health Systems, and Partners Healthcare System in Boston. He has also served as an expert consultant in change management/turn around, cost management, and information systems.
An avid guitarist, Miceli and colleague McKenna Lee founded the musical group McKenna Lee and the Microfixers in 2010. Over the past 7 years the group has helped raise over $20k for charitable causes. He has two adult children with wife Mari, an RN and fellow patient safety advocate who designed and developed the PatientAider app that the Miceli’s donated to the Patient Safety Movement Foundation.
Tamra E. Minnier, RN, MSN, FACHE
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Leadership
Tamra E. Minnier, RN, MSN, FACHE
Chief Quality Officer for UPMC, Executive Director, Beckwith Institute
Tami Minnier is the Chief Quality Officer for UPMC, an integrated delivery and financing system in Pittsburgh, PA. Quality, Safety and the Patient Experience is driven by the Wolff Center at UPMC. She is the Executive Director for the Beckwith Institute, a $15 million dollar foundation supporting innovation in care delivery and shared decision making.
Ms. Minnier has a passion for clinical care improvement. She has her BSN and MSN from University of Pittsburgh; she is a fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives. Ms. Minnier has studied the Toyota Production System and Lean Manufacturing. She is a graduate of the Advanced Training Program at Intermountain Health Care and has been on faculty at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. She is the Vice-Chair of the Board of Joint Commission International/ Joint Commission Resources. She also serves as a board member of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation. A nationally known speaker, Ms. Minnier has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Newsweek, The Journal of Nursing Administration, Modern Health Care, Healthcare Leaders, Reflections by Sigma Theta Tau, and many other journals. She has been noted by Becker’s as one of the 50 top experts leading the field of patient safety and top 130 women health system leaders to know in the USA in 2015. However, her proudest accomplishment is her son, Seth.
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Leadership
Jim Messina
CEO, The Messina Group
Jim Messina is arguably one of the world’s most successful political advisors. The
mastermind behind President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, Jim Messina seized the
reins on what Bloomberg Businessweek dubbed “the highest-wattage crash course in
executive management ever undertaken”—and succeeded, earning the President another
term in the White House. With the guidance of technology’s foremost leaders, Jim
abandoned every step of a traditional presidential campaign and merged technology and
politics in a way that was both unpredictable and unprecedented.
Jim’s strategies established the modern presidential campaign—Google’s Executive
Chairman Eric Schmidt called it “the best-run campaign ever.” The American Association of Political Consultants later crowned him the Campaign Strategist of the Year (2013).
Since then he has gone on to advise Presidents and Prime Ministers on five continents
including: UK’s Theresa May and David Cameron, Mexico’s Enrique Peña Nieto, Argentina’s Mauricio Macri, Italy’s Matteo Renzi and in 2016 helped Spain’s President Mariano Rajoy win a surprising re-election margin.
In 2013, Messina launched The Messina Group. In this role, Messina provides strategic
consulting to businesses around the world. The firm has been involved in winning public
policy campaigns on five continents. Clients include Uber, Airbnb, Google, Delta Air Lines,
Hutchison Whampoa, and over 70 others.
Previously, Jim served as Deputy Chief of Staff in President Barack Obama’s White House,
where he was integral to the passage of the historic health care bill, the economic stimulus
act credited with saving the US economy, and the landmark repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.”
Messina continues to advise and guide Democratic candidates and organizations at all
levels, as well as providing insight on news outlets such as MSNBC, CNN, Bloomberg, BBC
and others.
Jim serves on the boards of Organizing for Action (OFA), Virgin HyperloopOne, Google’s
Advanced Technology Panel, Vectra.ai, Pillpack, Patient Safety Movement Foundation,
LanzaTech, Hyp3r, the United States Soccer Foundation, and the Montana Land Reliance.
Michael A.E. Ramsay, MD, FRCA
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Leadership
Michael A.E. Ramsay, MD, FRCA
Chairman, Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Management, Baylor University Medical Center, and President of Baylor Scott & White Research Institute
Dr. Ramsay is Chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Management at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, a position that he has held since 1989. He is also Co-Medical Director of Operating Room Services. He serves as a member of the Baylor University Medical Center Board of Trustees and is also a member of the Medical Board. He is Director of Anesthesia for the liver transplant program and has personally provided anesthesia for over 1,000 liver transplant recipients. Dr. Ramsay is Past President of the International Liver Transplantation Society. Dr. Ramsay was recently appointed as an at-large delegate to the United Network for Organ Sharing and is a member of the American Society of Anesthesiologists Committee on Transplant Anesthesia. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of The Patient Safety Movement Foundation and serves as the Chair of the “Failure to Rescue: Post-operative Respiratory Depression” workgroup.
Dr. Ramsay is a Professor at Texas A & M Health Science Center and holds a clinical professorship in anesthesiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School as well as in the Department of Periodontics at Baylor College of Dentistry, Texas A & M University.
In addition, Dr. Ramsay is the developer of the Ramsay Sedation Scale, a measurement designed for interpreting the depth of sedation for patients in the critical care unit. This scale has been adopted around the world. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles and numerous chapters in text books. He was a member of the Sedation Analgesia Guidelines Task Force of the Society of Critical Care Medicine. This group came out with new guidelines for the management of Pain, Agitation and Delirium in Adult ICU patients in January 2013.
As President of Baylor Scott & White Research Institute (BSWRI), Dr. Ramsay leads clinically relevant research efforts for Baylor Scott & White Health (BSWH). Since joining the organization, he has developed a successful infrastructure that has increased the number of clinical trials from 250 to more than 2,000 active trials today. The mission of BRI is expressed in the following statement: “To improve the medical care and well-being of our community – nationally and internationally – through innovative, clinical research that is consistent with the mission, vision and values of Baylor Scott & White Health.” He executed a multimillion dollar collaboration agreement with La Roche pharmaceuticals that supports very early research projects and accelerates their completion. This was a pilot project and has now been replicated at many academic centers around the world.
Dr. Ramsay is currently involved in a number of clinical research projects for which he is the principal investigator. His current research includes the role of nitric oxide in ameliorating the reperfusion injury in liver transplantation. He also is a Principal Investigator of several NIH-funded clinical trials to improve the outcomes of trauma victims.
