Peter J. Pronovost, MD, PhD
Photo: Peter Pronovost

Interests/specialties:

Resources:

Elected 2009
Dr. Pronovost is a practicing anesthesiologist and critical care physician and a professor in the departments of Anesthesiology & Critical Care Medicine, Surgery and Health Policy and Management, Nursing who is dedicated to finding ways to make hospitals and health care safer for patients. He is Senior Vice President for Patient Safety and Quality and Director of the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, Johns Hopkins Medicine. He has developed a scientifically proven method for reducing the deadly infections associated with central line catheters. His simple but effective checklist protocol virtually eliminated these infections saving 1,500 lives and $100 million annually across the State of Michigan. The checklist protocol is now being implemented across the United States, state by state, and helped reduce these infections by 60%. Several other countries are also implementing the program. Peter has chronicled his work helping improve patient safety in his new book, Safe Patients, Smart Hospitals: How One Doctor’s Checklist Can Help Us Change Health Care from the Inside Out. In addition, he has also published more than 400 articles related to patient safety and the measurement and evaluation of safety efforts. He serves in an advisory capacity to the World Health Organizations’ World Alliance for Patient Safety. The winner of several national awards, including the 2004 John Eisenberg Patient Safety Research Award and a coveted MacArthur Fellowship in 2008, known popularly as the “genius grant”. Peter was named by Time magazine as one of the world’s 100 “most influential people” in the world for his work in patient safety. Peter regularly addresses Congress on the importance of patient safety, prompting a report by the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Government Reform strongly endorsing Peter’s ICU infection prevention program.

Honors / awards

National Academy of Medicine (2011)