This program is led by international experts in patient safety. Many of these experts have established benchmark patient safety programs in their own organizations and worked with organizations all over the world.

Doug Bonacum, MBA, CSP, CPHRM, Vice President, Safety Management, Kaiser Permanente, is responsible for patient safety, risk management, and environmental health and safety. Prior to joining Kaiser Permanente, he was Environmental, Health and Safety Manager for two large manufacturing facilities of Tyco/North American Printed Circuits in Connecticut. His previous experience also includes eight years of active duty in the US Submarine Force, where he was responsible for weapons and ship safety as well as nuclear power plant operations. Mr. Bonacum has a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of New Hampshire, an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a Certificate in Healthcare Management from the University of San Francisco.

James B. Conway, MS, Senior Vice President, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), was an IHI Senior Fellow from 2005-2006. From 1995-2005, he served as Executive Vice President and COO of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI). Prior to joining DFCI, he had a 27-year career at Children's Hospital, Boston, in radiology administration, finance, and as assistant hospital director for patient care services. His areas of expertise include governance and executive leadership, patient safety, change management, and patient- and family-centered care. Mr. Conway serves on several boards, is an Officer for the Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Errors, and a Distinguished Advisor to the National Patient Safety Foundation. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Identifying and Preventing Medication Errors; the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Quality and Cost Council; the Clinical Issues Advisory Council of the Massachusetts Hospital Association; and a past member of The Joint Commission Sentinel Event Alert Advisory Group.

Charles R. Denham, MD, Chairman, Texas Medical Institute of Technology, is also CEO of HCC Corporation and chairman of the Leapfrog Group NQF Safe Practices Program. Previously Dr. Denham was a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Texas and he taught innovation transfer in medical, engineering, and business schools. An author of numerous publications, he is also the inventor of software-driven innovation development systems used by cross-functional development teams in a number of global companies. He co-chairs the National Quality Forum Consensus Committees on Safe Practices and on Laboratory Safe Practices.

Frank A. Federico, RPh, Executive Director, Strategic Partners, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), works in the areas of patient safety, application of reliability principles in health care, preventing surgical complications, and the Idealized Design of Perinatal Care. He is also faculty for IHI's Patient Safety Officer Executive Development Program. Mr. Federico has worked with IHI since 1996 as a faculty member and co-chair of a number of Patient Safety Collaboratives. Previously he was Program Director of the Office Practice Evaluation Program and a Loss Prevention/Patient Safety Specialist at Risk Management Foundation of the Harvard Affiliated Institutions in Cambridge, MA.

Allan S. Frankel, MD, is a Principal in Lotus Forum, Inc., a company dedicated to improving health care safety using evidence-based metrics and tools to enhance teamwork, facilitate improvement, and support and train health care leaders. He is on the faculty of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), where he co-chaired many IHI Collaboratives and co-developed and teaches in the IHI Patient Safety Officer Executive Development Program. Dr. Frankel is a lead faculty for IHI patient safety programs across the UK, including a five-year program to improve safety in all Scottish hospitals. He is on the Brigham and Women's Patient Safety Center of Excellence faculty. Dr. Frankel is creator of Leadership Walkrounds and author of several books and articles on various safety topics. His research includes continued refinement of the Walkrounds tool to engage leaders in safety management, as well as team behavior techniques that create safe operations and care delivery.

Disclosure: I am a Principal in Lotus Forum, Inc., a company that develops and implements safety metrics. I will be discussing this topic in general and will reference many options about safety metrics, including those produced by Lotus Forum. I will disclose the commercial interests I have, and present a balanced view of the topic.

Carol Haraden, PhD, Vice President, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), is a member of the IHI team responsible for developing innovative designs in patient care. She currently leads the Safer Patients Initiative, a four-year project to improve patient safety in the UK, and the IHI work with Quality Improvement Scotland, the Scottish Patient Safety Alliance, aimed at transforming the safety of every Scottish hospital over five years. She is the executive lead for the IHI Patient Safety Officer Executive Development Program. Dr. Haraden has been a dean in higher education, a clinician, consultant, and researcher. She served on the Institute of Medicine Committee on Engineering Approaches to Improve Health Care, is a judge for several national quality awards, and is an associate editor for the journal Quality and Safety in Health Care.

Michael Leonard, MD, Physician Leader for Patient Safety, Kaiser Permanente, leads the national Kaiser Human Factors Patient Safety effort. Prior to his current position, he has served as Chief of Anesthesia, Chief of Surgical Services and Chairman of the Board of Directors. Dr. Leonard is a cardiac anesthesiologist by training and continues to actively practice medicine. He has also worked with the University of Texas Human Factors Research Project to incorporate the human factors lessons learned in other high-risk industries into medical patient safety. Dr. Leonard has lectured widely and worked with many health care systems to improve the safety and quality of medical care.

Disclosure: I am a Principal in a company called Lotus Forum Inc. that develops and implements safety metrics. I will be discussing this topic in general and will reference many options about safety metrics, including those produced by Lotus Forum. I will disclose the commercial interests I have, and present a balanced view of this topic.