Donald M. Berwick, MD, MPP
Former President and CEO
Former Administrator of U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Institute for Healthcare Improvement

Dr. Donald Berwick was the President and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) in 2007 at the time he received the Pete Conrad Global Patient Award on behalf of the IHI for its role in harmonizing the national safe practices with the other award winners. The co-founder of that organization he led for more than 20 years. He, his team, and other leaders launched the 100,000 Lives Campaign and later the 5 Million Lives Campaign that both had an enormous impact on American Healthcare. He is one of the nation’s leading authorities on health care quality and improvement. In July 2010, President Barack Obama appointed Dr. Berwick to the position of administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), a position he held until December 2011. A pediatrician by background, Dr. Berwick has served as clinical professor of pediatrics and healthcare policy at Harvard Medical School; as professor of health policy and management at the Harvard School of Public Health; and as a member of the staffs of Boston’s Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He has also served as vice chair of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force; the first “independent member” of the Board of Trustees of the American Hospital Association; and chair of the National Advisory Council of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. An elected member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), Dr. Berwick served two terms on the IOM’s governing council and was a member of the IOM’s Global Health Board. He also served on President Bill Clinton’s Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Healthcare Industry. Dr. Berwick is a recipient of numerous awards, including the 1999 Joint Commission’s Ernest Amory Codman Award; the 2002 American Hospital Association’s Award of Honor; the 2006 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award for Individual Achievement from the National Quality Forum and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations; the 2007 William B. Graham Prize for Health Services Research; and the 2007 Heinz Award for Public Policy from the Heinz Family Foundation. In 2005, he was appointed “Honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire” by the Queen of England, the highest honor awarded by the United Kingdom to non-British subjects, in recognition of his work with the British National Health Service. Dr. Berwick is the author or co-author of more than 160 scientific articles and four books. He received his BA from Harvard College, his MPP from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and his MD from Harvard Medical School.