Surgeons are rigorously trained in long and structured residencies, rich with supervision, rehearsal, frequent appraisal of skills, and graduated independence. The generally safe environments provided during surgical residencies are increasingly characterized by simulation and skills-training technologies that minimize patient risk and maximize efficient mastery of skills. But once a fully qualified surgeon enters practice, the situation is vastly different. Over a career that spans up to 40 years, the surgeon faces incremental as well as disruptive innovation in surgical devices, tools, and technology without structured and safe—non-patient-based—opportunities to adopt those innovations. The lack of such opportunities has implications for patients, surgeons, and health care costs.

Focus

The "40 Years in Practice" conference will focus on three issues:

• The marked variation in surgical outcomes that is observed across the US, with established procedures as well as surgical innovations
• The incentives and pressures being put into place by the health care industry to encourage surgeons and hospitals to improve the outcomes of surgical patients
• Non-patient-based learning opportunities, practices and policies that are needed to enable surgeons in practice to update their surgical skills

Faculty

National leaders in surgery, the health care industry, health policy, and surgical education will engage with conference participants to address these issues.

Logistics

This conference is funded by a grant from the Houston Endowment Inc. and held in Houston at the Methodist Hospital Research Institute Auditorium in the Texas Medical Center. Participants will have the opportunity to tour MITIE (the Methodist Institute for Technology, Innovation & Education), a 35,000 square-foot state-of-the art education and research institute focused on practicing health care professionals. MITIE is a unique resource that includes a “virtual hospital” where simulation is used to recreate high-risk patient care environments and conduct team training, a procedural skills laboratory with 15 operating environments for hands-on training, and a suite of image guided research operating rooms which include CT, MRI, and hybrid/robotic technology.

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Agenda

Speakers

Barbara Lee Bass, M.D., FACS
John F. and Carolyn Bookout Distinguished Endowed Chair of Surgery
The Methodist Hospital Department of Surgery Executive Director, The Methodist Institute for Technology, Innovation & Education (MITIE)
Professor of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
 
Since 2005, Barbara Lee Bass M.D., FACS has served as the Chair of the Department of Surgery at The Methodist Hospital in Houston where she is the John F. and Carolyn Bookout Distinguished Endowed Chair and Professor of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College.  Dr. Bass is the founder and Executive Director of the Methodist Institute for Technology, Innovation and Education – MITIE (mitietexas.com). This new 35,000 sq. ft. facility on the campus of the Texas Medical Center was created to define and develop the infrastructure essential to support lifelong procedural education and assessment of surgeons and other health care providers to meet the challenges posed by rapidly evolving surgical technologies and procedures. A practicing surgical oncologist the Methodist Hospital, Dr. Bass has served as Chair of the Board of Governors and  Regent  of the American College of Surgeons, Chair of the American Board of Surgery,  President of the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary  tract and as a member of the editorial boards of the leading surgical journals. Her current extramurally funded research program focuses on health services quality and outcomes research, computational surgery, and surgical education.  
 
Nelda P. Wray, M.D., MPH
Senior Research Scientist, The Methodist Institute for Technology, Innovation & Education
Department of Surgery
Senior Member, The Methodist Hospital Research Institute
The Methodist Hospital

Nelda P. Wray, M.D., MPH joined the Department of Surgery and the Research Institute of The Methodist Hospital in Houston, TX in July 2008, after two years as Professor of Medicine at the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham. Before that, she was Professor of Medicine and Medical Ethics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. She was the founding director of the Houston Center for Quality of Care and Utilization Studies, a Veterans Affairs Health Services Research and Development Center of Excellence. She is the past chief of the Section of Health Services Research at Baylor College of Medicine and the past Chief Research and Development Officer for the Veterans Health Administration in Washington DC. Dr. Wray has led or participated in many federally funded studies and has published over 100 articles in the peer-reviewed literature.

In addition to her academic roles, Dr. Wray has filled important policy roles. In 1994, Dr. Wray served as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow to Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole. In 1995, Governor George W. Bush appointed Dr. Wray as chair of the newly formed Texas Health Care Information Council, and in 1999 she was appointed by Governor George W. Bush to a three-year term on the Texas Board of Aging. At the end of that term she was appointed by Governor Rick Perry to serve an additional three years. In 1997, Dr. Wray was appointed by Donna E. Shalala, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, to a three-year term as a member of the National Advisory Council for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. In 1999 she was appointed to the National Advisory Group to the VA Health Services Research and Development Service. Sitting on these two committees, Dr. Wray advised on the development of the research portfolio of the two largest federal funding agencies for health services research. Between1999 and 2003, Dr. Wray served on the National Advisory Committee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program.

Dr. Wray is renowned for her expertise in the use of electronic data to monitor and improve health care. She currently is working on efforts to improve the evidence base for surgical procedures by exploring ways to integrate the collection of valid data on patient outcomes into everyday clinical practice. She was the principal investigator and senior author of the landmark study entitled “A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial of Arthroscopic Surgery of the Knee” published in the July 11, 2002 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. Her interview on National Public Radio about this study was judged as one of their three most important interviews of that year. This trial has been continues to be highly cited in the lay and professional press.

Dr. Wray has received numerous research awards. In 2000 she became only the second individual to receive the Department of Veterans Affairs Under Secretary for Health’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Health Services Research. This award recognizes an individual’s lifetime achievements in research and mentoring and their national and international reputation in health services research. In 2002 she received the Michael E. DeBakey Award for Excellence in Research from Baylor College of Medicine, the College’s highest award for achievement in research. In 2008, she and Dr. Carol Ashton received the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Investigator Award in Health Policy. This work has led to a book titled “Comparative Effectiveness Research: Evidence, Medicine, and Policy,” to be published by Oxford University Press in May, 2013. Presently she is a collaborating investigator on a three-year, $14.3 million Innovations Award focusing on the care of patients with sepsis in the Methodist Hospital System and five post-acute care partners.

H. Randolph Bailey, M.D., FACS
Chief, Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery
Deputy Chief of the Department of Surgery
The Methodist Hospital, Professor of Surgery
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Professor of Surgery
Baylor College of Medicine, Professor of Surgery
Regent, American College of Surgeons
 
Dr. Bailey is Clinical Professor of Surgery at both the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, Weill Cornell Medical College, and Baylor College of Medicine. He is a past president of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons and has also served as president of the American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery. He is the Emeritus Program Director of the residency training program in colon and rectal surgery at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. He is a native of Texas and received his undergraduate education at Rice University and attended medical school at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Regents of the American College of Surgeons. He is active in the practice of colon and rectal surgery in Houston, Texas as a member of Colon & Rectal Clinic, PA. He is the Deputy Chief of Surgery and Head of the Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery at The Methodist Hospital in Houston.
 
Marc L. Boom, M.D., MBA, FACP, FACHE
President and CEO
The Methodist Hospital, Houston, Texas
 
Marc L. Boom, M.D., M.B.A., F.A.C.P., F.A.C.H.E. currently holds the position of President and CEO of The Methodist Hospital System in Houston, Texas. The Methodist Hospital System is a 1000+ bed hospital network ranked nationally by US News & World Report. Methodist has affiliations with a number of academic institutions that support its teaching and research initiatives. These include Weill Cornell Medical College, New York Presbyterian Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine, University of Houston; Texas A&M and UT-Health Science Center.

Dr. Boom holds a B.S. in Biology with High Honors from the University of Texas at Austin, an M.D. with High Honor from Baylor College of Medicine, and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He completed a residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and fellowships in geriatric medicine and general medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He is board certified in both internal medicine and geriatric medicine, and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.

Previously Dr. Boom held the positions of Executive Vice President of The Methodist Hospital, President and CEO of Methodist Diagnostic Hospital and President/CEO/Medical Director of Baylor-Methodist Primary Care Associates, a network of primary care physicians. Dr. Boom is married to Dr. Julie Boom, a pediatrician at Texas Children’s Hospital. Dr. Julie Boom’s special interests are in vaccine advocacy and research. Married for over 20 years, the Booms have three children, Kathryn (16), John (13), and Janie (6). They are active members of First Presbyterian Church. Dr. Boom enjoys travel, soccer, gardening, playing the piano and gourmet cooking.

Salil Deshpande, M.D., MBA
Chief Medical Officer, UnitedHealthCare - South Texas Region 
 
Salil Deshpande, M.D., MBA is the chief medical officer for UnitedHealthcare’s South Texas region. He oversees medical management, quality improvement, utilization review and health care affordability initiatives for more than one million commercially insured members and managed Medicare members from the Houston metropolitan area to the Rio Grande Valley. 

In his role with UnitedHealthcare, Dr. Deshpande advises large employers on how to optimize their populations’ health through the use of innovative tools such as UnitedHealthcare’s Premium Designation provider profiling program.  He facilitates the design and implementation of value based contracts and other incentive programs with physician practices and hospital systems.  Dr. Deshpande represents UnitedHealthcare to news media, chambers of commerce and other local organizations on topics including America’s Health Rankings, childhood obesity, diabetes, and skin cancer prevention.

Board certified in internal medicine, Dr. Deshpande is a clinical faculty member at Baylor College of Medicine, where he completed medical school and residency training.  A native of Houston, he received his undergraduate degree in biology at the University of Southern California and an MBA at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.  

He has a longstanding interest in health policy and management, working with Hillary Clinton and Ira Magaziner on health care reform efforts during the first Clinton Administration.  More recently, Dr. Deshpande has assumed leadership roles with the Harris County Medical Association and the Texas Medical Association.  
 
Justin B. Dimick, M.D., MPH
Associate Professor of Surgery 
Henry King Ransom Professor of Surgery
Chief, Division of Minimally Invasive Surgery
Associate Chair for Faculty Development 

Justin B. Dimick, M.D., MPH is Associate Professor of Surgery, Chief of the Division of Minimally Invasive Surgery, and Associate Chair for Faculty Development at the University of Michigan. He is a clinically active general surgeon with a practice primarily devoted to advanced laparoscopy, including bariatric surgery. He is a national leader in surgical outcomes research, with over 130 peer-reviewed publications addressing performance measurement, variation in hospital quality, and cost-quality relationships.  With funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), his current research is evaluating Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) policies for improving surgical care, including selective referral, pay-for-performance, and episode bundled payments.  Dr. Dimick currently serves in several national organizations, including as Secretary of the Association of Academic Surgery (AAS), as a member of the Executive Committee of the Surgical Outcomes Club (SOC), and on the Editorial Board for Archives of Surgery. He has also served as an advisor on issues related to quality measurement and policy evaluation for the Medicare Payment Advisory Committee (MedPAC), the Institute of Medicine (IOM), The Leapfrog Group, and the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP). 
 
Brian J. Dunkin, M.D., FACS
Professor of Clinical Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
John F., Jr. and Carolyn Bookout Chair in Surgical Innovation and Technology
Head, Section of Endoscopic Surgery
Medical Director, Methodist Institute for Technology, Innovation and Education (MITIESM)
The Methodist Hospital, Houston, Texas

Brian J. Dunkin, M.D., FACS is the Head of the Section of Endoscopic Surgery and Medical Director of the Methodist Institute for Technology, Innovation & Education (MITIESM) at the Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas.  He did his surgical residency training at the George Washington University in Washington, DC and a fellowship in advanced laparoscopy and surgical endoscopy at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.  He has been an Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Maryland and an Associate Professor at the University of Miami in Florida.  He joined the staff at the Methodist Hospital in January of 2007.

Dr. Dunkin’s clinical practice is focused on advanced laparoscopic surgery and flexible GI endoscopy and he is the co-director of the Methodist minimally invasive surgery fellowship program. Dr.  Dunkin is also the Medical Director of MITIE – a world class comprehensive education and research institute focused on helping practicing health care professionals learn new procedural skills and adopt new medical technology.  Dr. Dunkin's research interests are in the development of novel methods and devices for endoscopic surgery, as well as the use of leading-edge technology in the development of improved training programs for surgeons.  He is published in the areas of flexible endoscopy, minimally invasive surgery, surgical education, and gastrointestinal physiology.  He is a Board member of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons, President elect of the Texas Association of Surgical Skills Laboratories and serves in leadership roles in the American College of Surgeons, the Surgical Society of the Alimentary Tract, and the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.  He is also a member of the editorial boards for Surgical Endoscopy and the Journal of Laparoendoscopic and Advanced Surgical Techniques and in 2010 was appointed a Professor of Clinical Surgery at the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York – the academic affiliate of Methodist. 
 
Nancy Foster
Vice President for Quality and Patient Safety Policy, American Hospital Association
 
Nancy Foster is the Vice President for Quality and Patient Safety Policy at the American Hospital Association.  In this role, she is the AHA’s point person for a variety of public-private efforts to provide information to consumers on the quality of care in American hospitals. Nancy represents the AHA at the National Quality Forum, is the liaison to the Joint Commission’s Board, participates in the work of the National Priority Partners and the Measure Application Partnership and represents hospital perspectives at many national meetings.  She provides advice to hospitals and public policy makers on opportunities to improve patient safety and quality.

Prior to joining the AHA, Nancy was the Coordinator for Quality Activities at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). In this role, she was the principal staff person for the Quality Interagency Coordination Task Force, which brought Federal agencies with health care responsibilities together to jointly engage in projects to improve quality and safety. She also led the development of patient safety research agenda for AHRQ and managed a portfolio of quality and safety research grants in excess of $10 million.

She is a graduate of Princeton University and has completed graduate work at Chapman University and Johns Hopkins University. In 2000, she was chosen as an Excellence in Government Leadership Fellow.      
 
Mary T. Hawn, M.D.
Professor and Chief of the Section of Gastrointestinal Surgery, University of Alabama at Birmingham
 
Mary T. Hawn, M.D., FACS is Professor and Chief of the Section of Gastrointestinal Surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.  Her main clinical focus is minimally invasive GI surgery.  Her research focus is on surgical outcomes and quality measurement.  Dr. Hawn is the Director of the Center for Surgical, Medical Acute care Research and Transitions (C-SMART), funded by the Veterans Affairs Health Services Research and Development Program, at the Birmingham VAMC.  She has several extramurally funded grants including comparative effectiveness for incisional hernia repair, the association between process and outcomes measures for surgery, predictive models for surgical outcomes and effect of patient comorbidities on surgical outcomes.

David B. Hoyt, M.D., FACS
Executive Director, American College of Surgeons
 
David B. Hoyt, M.D., FACS received a BA degree with honors from Amherst College, followed by an M.D. degree from Case Western Reserve University in 1976.  From 1976-1984 Dr. Hoyt was a Surgical Resident and Research Fellow at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and Scripps Immunology Institute.  He joined the faculty at UCSD and immediately became involved in their Trauma Service where his role as Director lasted from 1989 – 2006.  In 1995 he was appointed Professor of Surgery and was awarded The Monroe E. Trout Professorship in Surgery at UCSD (1996).  In 2006 Dr. Hoyt was appointed to the position of Chairman, for the Department of Surgery at the University of California, Irvine and the John E. Connolly Professor of Surgery. In 2008 Dr. Hoyt was also appointed Executive Vice Dean for the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine. In January 2010 Dr. Hoyt was appointed Executive Director of the American College of Surgeons. He remains Emeritus Professor of Surgery at the University of California, Irvine.  

Dr. Hoyt has distinguished himself within the Department of Surgery, having delivered numerous named lectures, received multiple significant awards from his colleagues as well as scientific organizations, while serving in positions of leadership.  Dr. Hoyt continues to serve as an advisor for many graduate students.  

He is a member of the American Surgical Association, Surgical Biology Club, Western Surgical Association, and Society of University Surgeons and holds membership in other prestigious surgical organizations.  He is currently the immediate Past President of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, Past President of the Society of General Surgeons of San Diego, Past President of the Shock Society, Past Chairman of the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma, and Past Medical Director of Trauma at the American College of Surgeons.  He has been a visiting professor at a large number of institutions nationally and internationally and is an Editorial Board Member of six journals. Dr. Hoyt consistently received significant public research funding, and continues to do so.  He is the author of over 500 publications. He was recently awarded the American Heart Association Resuscitation Science Lifetime Research Achievement Award, the American College of Surgeons Distinguished Service Award and the Shock Society Scientific Achievement Award.

Clifford Y. Ko, M.D., M.S., MSHS, FACS, FASCRS
Director, Division of Research and Optimal Patient Care
Director, ACS NSQIP
American College of Surgeons
 
Clifford Y. Ko, M.D., M.S., MSHS, FACS, FASCRS is the Director of the Division of Research and Optimal Patient Care at the American College of Surgeons. He oversees the quality improvement programs in the Division, which includes the Bariatric Surgery Centers Network, the Cancer Accreditation program, Trauma Verification program, and the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP). He is the Director of ACS NSQIP. 

Clinically, Dr. Ko is also an operating surgeon with a practice focusing on patients with colorectal cancer. He is the Robert and Kelly Day Professor of Surgery at UCLA and has won the Faculty Teaching Award three times.  He is recognized as one of the Best Doctors in America.

Dr. Ko focuses his work on surgical quality of care, policy-relevant evaluation, and improvement. He has performed numerous investigations and has received peer reviewed funding from a number of sources including the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Cancer Society, the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Veterans Administration. He has published over 240 peer-reviewed manuscripts and has written more than 20 book chapters. He is frequently invited to speak nationally and internationally and has served on several advisory panels for improving patient care. 

Dr. Ko received his B.A (Biology), M.S. (Biological/Medical Ethics), and M.D. from the University of Chicago. He received a second Masters of Science Degree (Health Services/Outcomes Research) from the University of California, Los Angeles during his time as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Fellow at UCLA and RAND. Dr. Ko completed his General Surgery Residency at UCLA Medical Center, and obtained specialty training at the Lahey Clinic in Boston in Colon and Rectal Surgery.

William Kramer
Executive Director for National Health Policy, Pacific Business Group on Health
 
Bill Kramer is Executive Director for National Health Policy at the Pacific Business Group on Health.  Bill also serves as Project Director for the Consumer-Purchaser Disclosure Project, a collaborative led by PBGH and the National Partnership for Women & Families to improve the quality and affordability of health care.  Bill serves on the National Priorities Partnership, the National Quality Forum’s Measure Applications Partnership Coordinating Committee, and the AQA Alliance Steering Group.  Immediately prior to taking his position at PBGH, Bill led his own consulting practice focusing on health reform, finance and business strategy for public and private sector clients.  Prior to developing his consulting practice, Bill was a senior executive with Kaiser Permanente for over 20 years--most recently as Chief Financial Officer for Kaiser Permanente's Northwest Region.  Bill also served as general manager for Kaiser Permanente’s operations in Connecticut; earlier in his career, he managed marketing, human resources, and medical economics functions.  Bill has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA from Harvard.

Michael Larvin, M.D., MA, FRCS
Chair and Head of the Medical School
University of Limerick, Ireland

Mike Larvin recently took leadership over Ireland’s newest medical school with an innovative US-style graduate entry program. He previously spent 10 years as Chair of Surgery at the University of Nottingham at Derby, UK. Dr Larvin has contributed to UK surgical training for over two decades. He worked alongside Professor Michael McMahon in Leeds in a pioneering surgical simulation center, and initiated e-Learning for the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS). For the last 5 years he was RCS Director of Education, leading a $25m Simulation Center in London and a national program serving some 10,000 participants annually. He developed freeze-preserved cadaveric simulation, promoted multi-professional learning and extended outreach across Europe and Asia.

After a brief career in radio broadcasting, Dr Larvin gained a Psychology degree from London University and qualified in Medicine from Guy’s Hospital, subsequently training in HPB surgery. He holds a research Doctorate from Leeds University and retains interests in pancreatic and bariatric research. He gained a Masters in Education from London University, and has especial interest in technology enhanced learning. Dr Larvin is a former President of the Pancreatic Society of GB and Ireland and recipient of its Lord Smith Medal. He has also served as RCS Hunterian Professor, RCS Council member, Director of the National eLibrary for Surgery, OR and Critical Care and National Champion for Surgical eLearning for the UK Department of Health.

Dr Larvin is a practising pancreatic surgeon, and a frequent visitor to the USA being an enthusiastic SSAT, Pancreas Club Inc and American Pancreatic Association member. His personal philosophy is that surgical training should promote excellence beyond necessary competency, and must remain enjoyable for both learners and teachers - whose relationship remains critical to success amidst technological advances.

Mark A. Malangoni, M.D., FACS
Associate Executive Director, American Board of Surgery

Mark A. Malangoni, M.D., FACS is Associate Executive Director of the American Board of Surgery.  Dr. Malangoni received an undergraduate degree in Zoology cum laude from Indiana University and his Doctor of Medicine degree from the Indiana University School of Medicine.  He completed a residency in Surgery at the Indiana University School of Medicine in 1980 and is certified by the American Board of Surgery in both Surgery and Surgical Critical Care. Dr. Malangoni is an Adjunct Professor of Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania and was formerly a tenured Professor of Surgery at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and Chairman of the Department of Surgery at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, positions he held for more than 20 years.

Dr. Malangoni is a member of the Board of Regents of the American College of Surgeons and is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the Committee on Trauma of the College. He has been Chair of the Advisory Council for General Surgery and Chair of the Board of Governors of the American College of Surgeons, as well as Vice-Chair of the Residency Review Committee for Surgery. Dr. Malangoni is a Past-President of the Central Surgical Association, Surgical Infection Society, Ohio Chapter of the American College of Surgeons, and the Cleveland Surgical Society.  He also has served as Vice President of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma.  Dr. Malangoni has been Chair of the American Board of Surgery and serves as a Senior Director of both the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Malangoni is an active member of numerous professional organizations including the American Surgical Association.

Dr. Malangoni has authored or co-authored more than 175 peer-reviewed articles and 50 book chapters.  His research interests include surgical infections, the management of abdominal injuries, the pathophysiology and consequences of hemorrhagic shock and surgical education. He is a member of the editorial boards for the American Journal of Surgery, Annals of Surgery, Journal of the American College of Surgeons, Surgery, Surgical Infections, and the World Journal of Emergency Surgery.

Among the numerous honors and awards he has received for teaching and professional service are the prestigious Kaiser-Permanente Award for Excellence in Teaching from Case Western Reserve University and Distinguished Service Awards from the Ohio Chapter of the American College of Surgeons and the Case Western Reserve University Department of Surgery. He has been a visiting professor at more than 30 institutions and has given numerous named lectures.  Dr. Malangoni has participated in medical service missions to El Salvador and was a volunteer board member of a faith-based service organization in Cleveland.

Mark Malangoni and his wife, Nancy, have been married for 40 years.  They have three sons and two grandchildren.   
  
Mark McClellan, M.D., Ph.D   
Leonard D. Schaeffer Chair in Health Policy Studies
Brookings Institution
Director, Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform
 
Mark McClellan, M.D., PhD is director of the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform and Leonard D. Schaeffer Chair in Health Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution.  At the Center, his work focuses on promoting high-quality, innovative and affordable health care.  A doctor and economist by training, he also has a highly distinguished record in public service and in academic research.  Dr. McClellan is a former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where he developed and implemented major reforms in health policy.  These include the Medicare prescription drug benefit, the FDA’s Critical Path Initiative, and public-private initiatives to develop better information on the quality and cost of care.  Dr. McClellan chairs the FDA’s Reagan-Udall Foundation, is co-chair of the Quality Alliance Steering Committee, sits on the National Quality Forum’s Board of Directors, is a member of the Institute of Medicine, and is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.  He previously served as a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and senior director for health care policy at the White House, and was an associate professor of economics and medicine at Stanford University.
 
David S. Nilasena, M.D., MSPH, M.S.   
Chief Medical Officer, Region VI
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

David S. Nilasena, M.D., MSPH, M.S. is the Chief Medical Officer of the CMS Dallas Regional Office. He is the regional lead for the agency’s Value-Based Purchasing initiatives and is a lead contact for the HITECH EHR Incentive Program. Dr. Nilasena has been the CMS lead for national quality improvement efforts in AMI, Heart Failure, and Stroke. He is board certified in General Preventive Medicine/ Public Health and has Masters of Science degrees in both Public Health and Medical Informatics from the University of Utah. 
 
Carlos A. Pellegrini, M.D., FACS, FRCSI (Hon.) 
The Henry N. Harkins Professor and Chair, Department of Surgery 
Chair of the Board, Institute for Simulation and Interprofessional Studies 
University of Washington 

Carlos A. Pelligrini, M.D., FACS, FRCSI (Hon.) is a world leader in minimally invasive gastrointestinal surgery and a pioneer in the development of videoendoscopy for the surgical treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease and esophageal motility disorders, particularly achalasia. He received his M.D. in 1971 from the University of Rosario Medical School in Argentina and then completed a second surgical residency at the University of Chicago. In 1979, he was appointed to the faculty of the University of California San Francisco where he worked as an active gastrointestinal surgeon, researcher and Professor. In 1993 he became Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the University of Washington in Seattle where he developed the Center for Videoendoscopic Surgery, the Center for Esophageal and Gastric Surgery, and the Institute for Simulation and Interprofessional Studies (ISIS).
In addition to his role as Department Chair, Dr. Pellegrini serves in many of the top leadership positions at UW and in a host of regional, national and international surgical associations. 

Dr. Pellegrini is the current President-Elect of the American College of Surgeons, a past Chair of the Board of Regents of the ACS, and a past President of the American Surgical Association. He is the current President of OESO and participates in the highest leadership roles in regional, national and international surgical societies. His bibliography lists more than 300 articles, chapters, editorials, and books in the field of minimally invasive surgery for upper gastrointestinal diseases, esophageal cancer, and related areas, as well as the fields of surgical education, simulation, professionalism and leadership. 
 
Lewis G. Sandy, M.D., FACP
Vice President, Clinical Advancement, UnitedHealth Group

Lewis G. Sandy, M.D., FACP is Senior Vice President, Clinical Advancement, UnitedHealth Group (a Fortune 25 diversified health and well-being company dedicated to helping people live healthier lives). At UnitedHealth Group he focuses on clinical innovation, payment/delivery reforms to modernize our health care system, and physician collaboration. He also is a Principal in the UnitedHealth Center for Health Reform and Modernization, with a focus on payment/delivery innovation and policy.  From 2003 to 2007, he was EVP and Chief Medical Officer of UnitedHealthcare, UnitedHealth Group’s largest business focusing on the employer/individual health benefits market.  From 1997 to 2003, he was EVP of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  At RWJF, he was responsible for the Foundation's program development and management, strategic planning and administrative operations. Prior to this, Dr. Sandy was a program VP of the Foundation, focusing on the Foundation's workforce, health policy, and chronic care initiatives. An internist and former health center medical director at the Harvard Community Health Plan in Boston, Massachusetts, Dr. Sandy received his B.S. and M.D. degrees from the University of Michigan and an M.B.A. degree from Stanford University.  A former RWJF Clinical Scholar and Clinical Fellow in Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, Dr. Sandy served his internship and residency at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. He is a Senior Fellow of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Department of Health Policy and Management.
 
Ajit K. Sachdeva, M.D., FRCSC, FACS
Director of the Division of Education
American College of Surgeons

Ajit K. Sachdeva, M.D., FRCSC, FACS is the founding Director of the Division of Education at the American College of Surgeons. He established this new division, which is responsible for the development and implementation of innovative educational programs for surgeons, surgery residents, medical students and members of surgical teams. Under Dr. Sachdeva’s leadership, several major initiatives have been launched that have established new national and international benchmarks. These include education and training programs to promote expertise and excellence in surgery; cutting-edge simulation-based education and training programs; Program for Accreditation of Education Institutes (Simulation Centers); redesigned Annual Clinical Congress; Program for Verification of Knowledge and Skills; and a range of continuous professional development programs with robust self-assessment modules. He has initiated several national research and development projects in surgical education. Dr. Sachdeva also serves as Adjunct Professor of Surgery at The Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University.

Prior to joining the College, Dr. Sachdeva was the Leon C. Sunstein, Jr., Professor of Medical and Health Sciences Education and Professor and Vice Chairman for Educational Affairs, Department of Surgery, at the MCP Hahnemann School of Medicine. He had also held the positions of Associate Dean for Medical Education and Director of an Academic Center for Educational Excellence, and served as Chairman of three successive medical school Education/Curriculum Committees for 12 years. He established a Division of Surgical Education and a Fellowship Program in Surgical Education.

Dr. Sachdeva served as Chief of Surgical Services at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center for over eight years, during which he planned and directed the expansion of tertiary care services staffed by two medical schools (University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and MCP Hahnemann School of Medicine). He established a Regional Network Health Care Program for Women Veterans for which he received the Gold Medal in the Excellence in Government Awards Program, the National Performance Review Award of the Vice President of the United States and an Award of the Deputy Secretary, Department of Veterans Affairs.

Dr. Sachdeva was awarded the Distinguished Educator Award (a Lifetime Achievement Award) by the Association for Surgical Education and the Margaret Hay Edwards, M.D., Achievement Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Cancer Education by the American Association for Cancer Education. Dr. Sachdeva has also received the Award for Outstanding Contributions to Healthcare Simulation from the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, the Frances M. Maitland Award from the Alliance for Continuing Medical Education, and a Recognition of Excellence Award from the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons. He has also received the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, the Blockley-Osler Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching, the Board of Trustees’ Award for Teaching Excellence, and Golden Apple Awards for teaching excellence. He has delivered presentations and conducted courses on educational topics in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and Japan. He has been the recipient of major educational grants and has published widely in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Sachdeva is a member of the American Surgical Association. He has chaired the Committee on Surgical Education of The Society of University Surgeons, and served on the Board of Governors of the American College of Surgeons. He has also served as Chairman of the Scientific Review Group Education Subcommittee (Study Section) of the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health. Dr. Sachdeva has served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

Dr. Sachdeva has served as President of the Association for Surgical Education, President of the American Association for Cancer Education, President of the Alliance for Clinical Education, and President of the Council of Medical Specialty Societies.

Luke Sato, M.D.
Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer
Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Luke Sato, M.D. is Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and Senior Vice President for CRICO/RMF (Risk Management Foundation of the Harvard Medical Institutions) and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS). His current responsibilities include overseeing development of all Patient Safety and Loss Prevention programs for CRICO/RMF and coordinating these initiatives across the Harvard medical system.  In addition, he is responsible for CRICO’s communication and public affairs function. Dr Sato’s clinical training is in neurology and in computer science/medical informatics through the Division of Health Sciences and Technology at HMS and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a National Library of Medicine sponsored post-doctoral fellowship program.  He has applied industry principles and best practices to clinical risk management and patient safety and has developed several methodologies to analyze medical malpractice claims and patient safety data. One
approach is to analyze malpractice data through the eyes of the patient by identifying care process failures which include individual risk and safety issues as well as systems-based process failures embedded in legal documents such as plaintiff depositions and claims adjuster reports.  This methodology is called Patient-Centered Risk Management and is now the basis our approach to analyzing medical malpractice data.  

Dr. Sato is developing methodologies that take various data sources outside of malpractice claims data, such as patient complaint and satisfaction data, demographic, root cause analysis, sentinel event data, as well as other publically available data sources to identify potential precursors or “leading indicators” to malpractice claims using decision analysis and statistical regression models.  Our experience has shown these predictive analytic methods have added value to understanding future risks within an organization or with particular individual using multiple data sources. The extension of this method would be applied to update and generate new taxonomies, ontology, and coding structures at CRICO/RMF based on newly identified relationships between data attributes and to focus our limited resources on those areas of risk most likely to contribute to malpractice. From a practical point of view, the value proposition of this approach is to help healthcare organizations prioritize interventions that would provide a clear return on investment as well as early identification of individual and systems/process-based issues that lead to risk, safety, and quality.

Prior to becoming CMO, Dr. Sato was the Chief Information Officer for RMF where he oversaw all system application development at CRICO/RMF.  Prior to CRICO/RMF, he was staff at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and held the position of associate director of a medical informatics research and development laboratory at BWH and Harvard Medical School.
 
Tim Schmid
President, U.S. Surgical Care
ETHICON, a Johnson & Johnson Company

Tim Schmid is President of ETHICON's Surgical Care business in the U.S. and a member of the Global Management Board. He leads the U.S. organization, comprising of market leading surgical businesses in wound closure, minimally invasive surgery, hernia, bariatrics, and gynecology.

Tim grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa, and was educated in South Africa, Canada, and the United Kingdom. He holds an MBA in International Marketing and Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science.

Tim joined Johnson & Johnson 19 years ago in Toronto, Canada and during his career has held a variety of diverse leadership positions in sales, in-line and strategic marketing, licensing & acquisition and general management across Canada, the U.S., Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

Recently, Tim led the integration of Ethicon Products, Ethicon Endo-Surgery and Ethicon Gynecare, creating one of the largest and most diverse surgical device organizations in the nation.

Tim lives with his wife and three children in Princeton, New Jersey.

Steven D. Schwaitzberg, M.D., FACS
Chief of Surgery, Cambridge Heath Alliance
Associate Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School
Immediate Past President of The Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES)
 
Steven D. Schwaitzberg, M.D., FACS is the Chief of Surgery of the Cambridge Heath Alliance and Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School.  He is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University, Baylor College of Medicine, and Baylor General Surgery Residency as well as fellowships in Infectious Diseases and Pediatric Trauma.  He is the Multimedia Editor for Surgical Endoscopy and is on the editorial boards of several other surgical journals.  Dr. Schwaitzberg is the recipient of several awards for patient care and a Computerworld Laureate award for introducing surgical video editing into post graduate education.  He holds 2 patents and has written more than 120 articles, 12 books chapters and is currently editing 2 books.  His funded research interests are in Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) with a particular focus on the value proposition of current and emerging surgical technology which includes training/simulation, surgical infection and outcomes. Recent publications include examining the intersection of cost and quality which examines the role of surgery in the emerging era of payment reform, Dr. Schwaitzberg is currently the immediate past president of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES), the largest general surgery specialty society in the United States.  During his tenure he worked diligently to forge alliances between groups of physician, surgeons, and nurses across many disciplines as well as industry to work cooperatively and transparently to build new educational programs and responsibly introduce new technologies.  The roles of developed and developing countries  working to together to promote surgical safety, education and training remains a challenge he hopes to impact through the combined use of  imagination, diplomacy and technology.  
 
Mark A. Talamini, M.D.
Professor and M.J. Orloff Family Chair
Department of Surgery
University of California, San Diego Health System

Mark A. Talamini, MD, professor and M.J. Orloff Family Chair of the department of surgery at UC San Diego Health System, specializes in gastrointestinal surgery, with an emphasis on the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis).

Dr. Talamini is recognized as one of the leading authorities on laparoscopic and robotic-assisted surgery in the United States. He and the UC San Diego Center for the Future of Surgery attracted global attention in 2008 for advancing Natural Orifice Translumenal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES). Dr. Talamini’s team was the first in the country to remove a diseased appendix through a natural orifice, such as the mouth.

In partnership with engineers and computer scientists from the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), Dr. Talamini and his team have developed a new surgical camera that boasts auto focus and optical zoom. Designed for NOTES, the prototype — called SurgiCam — can be inserted through a 1.5 cm incision to provide enhanced visual imaging.

Under Dr. Talamini’s leadership, the Department of Surgery has teamed up with LifeWings Partners, LLC, a company dedicated to applying to health care the same training that has made commercial aviation safe and reliable. This partnership has markedly improved patient safety and quality of care for UC San Diego Health System surgical patients through system-wide standardization.

Prior to joining UC San Diego Health System, Dr. Talamini was director of minimally invasive surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1992 to 2004. He was one of the first surgeons there to use robotic-assisted laparoscopic techniques for general abdominal procedures, such as gallbladder removal and treatment of gastroesophageal reflux.

Dr. Talamini trained in the Halsted General Surgery Service at Johns Hopkins Hospital, completing his residency in 1987, and joining the faculty the following year. He earned his undergraduate degree at Johns Hopkins University, and his Doctor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1981.

From 2008 to 2009, Dr. Talamini served as President of the Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES). He has also held key roles with the American College of Surgeons and the Association for Academic Surgery. He serves on the editorial boards of several prominent surgical journals, and is the editor for Surgical Endoscopy. With more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters to his credit, Dr. Talamini also holds a National Institutes of Health grant to study the basic biological mechanisms involved with minimally invasive surgery. His book, Advanced Therapy with Minimally Invasive Surgery, was published in 2006.

David S. Utley, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer, Covidien GI Solutions
 
David S. Utley, M.D. is the chief medical officer (2003-present) for Covidien GI Solutions (formerly BÂRRX Medical, Inc.) in Sunnyvale, California, a medical device company that develops endoscopic systems for treating diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, including Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal squamous cell neoplasia.

Dr. Utley graduated from Harvard Medical School and completed his surgical training in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery as well as facial plastic and reconstructive surgery at Stanford University Medical Center, where he was subsequently appointed to the faculty as clinical assistant professor of surgery.  He has 25 peer-reviewed publications related to GI, plastic and reconstructive surgery, and ENT.

He has had a role as founder, chief medical officer, or member of the board of directors with several start-up medical device companies, including:  Somnus Medical Technologies (ENT), Curon Medical (GI), Aetherworks (pulmonary), BAROnova (GI), Freedom-2 (plastics), and CoAlign (spine), and is the inventor on 65 issued U.S. patents and 98 published U.S. patents.
 
Thomas B. Valuck, M.D., JD
Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships
National Quality Forum
 
Thomas B. Valuck, M.D., JD is Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships, at the National Quality Forum (NQF). Dr. Valuck oversees NQF-convened partnerships—the Measure Applications Partnership (MAP) and the National Priorities Partnership (NPP)—as well as NQF’s engagement with states and regional community alliances. These NQF initiatives aim to improve health and healthcare through use of performance information for public reporting, payment incentives, accreditation and certification, and systems improvement.
Dr. Valuck comes to NQF from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), where he advised senior agency and Department of Health and Human Services leadership regarding Medicare payment and quality of care, particularly value-based purchasing. While at CMS, Dr. Valuck was recognized for his leadership in advancing Medicare’s pay-for-performance initiatives, receiving both the 2009 Administrator’s Citation and the 2007 Administrator’s Achievement Awards.
 
Before joining CMS, Dr. Valuck was the vice president of medical affairs at the University of Kansas Medical Center, where he managed quality improvement, utilization review, risk management, and physician relations. Before that he served on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow; the White House Council of Economic Advisors, where he researched and analyzed public and private healthcare financing issues; and at the law firm of Latham & Watkins as an associate, where he practiced regulatory health law. 

Dr. Valuck has degrees in biological science and medicine from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, a master’s degree in health services administration from the University of Kansas, and a law degree from the Georgetown University Law School.

Bradley K. Weiner, M.D.
Professor and Vice Chairman of Orthopaedic Surgery
The Methodist Hospital, Houston, Texas
Chief of Spinal Surgery, Residency Program Director, Medical Director
The Surgical Advanced Technology Laboratory

Bradley K. Weiner, M.D. is Professor and Vice Chairman of Orthopaedic Surgery at The Methodist Hospital. He also serves as Chief of Spinal Surgery, Residency Program Director, and Medical Director of The Surgical Advanced Technology Laboratory. His research interests include the application of novel technologies, such as nanotechnologies, in surgery; ethics and philosophy of medicine; and clinical outcomes. He has published over 160 papers, editorials, and book chapters; and has won multiple research awards.

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The conference coincides with the annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the world's largest livestock exhibition,richest regular-season rodeo, and the Southwest's premier entertainment event. During this 3-week long extravaganza, events start at 7:00 a.m. every day and go until 10:00 p.m. It is held at Reliant Park, just a few miles away from the Texas Medical Center and easily accessible by a short train ride.

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