MPP, John F. Kennedy School of Government
MD, Harvard Medical School
Impeccable liberal credentials
Dr. Berwick was chair of the Health Services Research Review Study Section of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research from 1995–1999, and Chair of the National Advisory Council of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality from 1999 through 2001. He was vice chair of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force from 1990 through 1996. From 1996 through 1999, Dr. Berwick served as the first "Independent Member" of the Board of Trustees of the American Hospital Association. He also served from 1989 through 1991 as a member of the Panel of Judges for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award program. He is a member of several editorial boards, including that of Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA). From 1987 through 1991, Dr. Berwick was co-founder and Co-Principal Investigator for the National Demonstration Project on Quality Improvement in Health Care (NDP). He is a past president of the International Society for Medical Decision-Making. He is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and since 2002 serves on the IOM's governing Council and as the liaison to the IOM's Global Health Board.
Dr. Berwick was appointed by President Clinton to serve on the Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Healthcare Industry in 1997 and 1998. Co-chaired by the Secretaries of Health and Human Services and Labor, the Commission was charged with developing a broader understanding of the issues facing rapidly evolving healthcare delivery systems and to help build consensus on ways to assure and improve the quality of health care.
Dr. Berwick has received numerous awards and honors for his work, including the 1999 Ernest A. Codman Award, and, in 2001, the first Alfred I. DuPont Award for excellence in children’s health care from Nemours, one of the nation's largest pediatric health care provider organizations. In 2002, he was given the "Award of Honor" from the American Hospital Association for outstanding leadership in improving health care quality, and in 2004 he was inducted as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London. In 2005, in recognition of his exemplary work for the National Health Service in the U.K., he was appointed honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire—the highest award given to non-British citizens.
A summa cum laude graduate of Harvard College, Dr. Berwick holds a master of Public Policy degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government and an MD cum laude from the Harvard Medical School. The father of four children (Ben, Dan, Jessica, and Rebecca), he is married to Ann (Greenberg) Berwick, an environmental attorney and former Chief of the Environmental Protection Division in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office.
MPP, John F. Kennedy School of Government
MD, Harvard Medical School
Impeccable liberal credentials
Berwick’s vision for health care is an adaptation from the Institute of Medicine’s six improvement aims for the health care system – care that is safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable. IHI calls this the “No Needless List”:
No Needless Deaths
No Needless Pain or Suffering
No Helplessness in Those Served or Serving
No Unwanted Waiting
No Waste
No One Left Out
I wonder what that work was, exactly...