Berwick, Donald M.

Donald M. Berwick is a leading authority in the area of healthcare quality and quality improvement. Berwick cofounded and is president and chief executive officer of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), a not-for-profit organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, dedicated to improving quality in healthcare that was formed in 1991. Berwick is professor of health policy and management at the Harvard School of Public Health and clinical professor of pediatrics and healthcare policy at the Harvard Medical School. In addition, Berwick is an associate in pediatrics at Children's Hospital in Boston and a consultant in pediatrics at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Berwick has published numerous articles in professional journals on the subjects of healthcare policy, decision analysis, technology assessment, and healthcare quality management. He also has authored or coauthored several books, including Escape Fire: Designs for the Future of Health Care (2004), New Rules: Regulation, Markets and the Quality of American Health Care (1996), and Curing Health Care: New Strategies for Quality Improvement (1990). And he is a member of several editorial boards, including the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Throughout his long and illustrious career, Berwick has served as the chair of various national committees, including the Health Services Research Review Study Section of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research from 1995 to 1999 and the National Advisory Council of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) from 1999 through 2001. From 1990 to 1996, Berwick served as the vice chair of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and [Page 99]was the first “Independent Member” of the Board of Trustees of the American Hospital Association (AHA) from 1996 through 1999. Berwick cofounded and was a co–principal investigator for the National Demonstration Project on Quality Improvement in Health Care. Berwick is a past president of the International Society for Medical Decision Making and is an elected member of the national Institute of Medicine (IOM). He has served on the IOM's governing council and has acted as a liaison to the IOM's Global Health Board since 2002.

In 1997, President Clinton appointed Berwick to the Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Healthcare Industry. This commission was cochaired by the Secretaries of Health and Human Services and Labor and it was given the responsibility to gain a better understanding of the issues facing the changing healthcare delivery system and build consensus on ways to ensure and improve healthcare quality.

Berwick is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Earnest A. Codman Award, the first Alfred I. DuPont award for excellence in children's healthcare from Nemours, the Award of Honor from the AHA for outstanding leadership for improving healthcare quality, the Heinz Award for public policy, the Purpose Prize, and the William B. Graham Prize for Health Services Research. In 2004, Berwick was inducted as a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London. The following year, he was appointed as honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

Berwick received his bachelor's degree from Harvard College, a master of public policy degree from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a doctor of medicine degree from Harvard Medical School.

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