Chief Quality Officer – Jodi Larson, MD

Dr. Janet (Jodi) Larson oversees quality, safety, risk management, regulatory readiness/accreditation, patient experience, patient advocacy, the Domestic Violence Program, and the Simulation Center, with a focus on rigorously improving quality, patient safety, and patient experience, as well as strategically aligning these areas to improve care delivery.
 

Medical Director – David Yuh, MD

David J. Yuh, MD, is a primary care physician at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. After receiving his medical degree, Dr. Yuh completed an internal medicine residency at Boston University Medical Center and a fellowship in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety at the Boston VA Healthcare System. He is board certified in internal medicine.

Assistant Director, Strategy– Natalie Sanfratello, MPH, CHCP

Natalie Sanfratello, MPH, is the Assistant Director, Strategy in the CCE. She manages quality improvement initiatives and other large scale national continuing education programs. Natalie co-manages the QI Hub, the central QI educational resource for the Boston Medical Center (BMC) Health System, which is jointly provided by the (CCE) and the BMC Department of Quality and Patient Safety. Natalie serves as a manager and faculty member for our flagship quality improvement capacity-building program: the Improvement Leadership Academy. She provides consultative and technical assistance to members of the BMC community on their quality improvement projects. 

Program Manager – Alison Li, MPH

Alison Li, MPH, is the Program Manager at the CCE. Alison has a background in public health, receiving her MPH degree in May 2024 from Boston University, School of Public Health. Alison began her journey with the CCE in 2023 as the Program Assistant to support the QI Hub using quality improvement tools and methodologies. She is now our Program Manager and supports quality improvement projects on behalf of Boston Medical Center (BMC) and Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian Medical School, Center for Continuing Education (BU CCE). Alison also continues to assist with the day-to-day operations of the QI Hub and coordinates all accredited continuing education and Maintenance of Certification (MOC). 

Lauren Betancourt, MPH

Sr. Manager of Population Health, Boston Medical Center Health System

Lauren Betancourt is a senior manager in the population health department at BMC Health System. Lauren manages shared risk contracts and works alongside provider partners to develop strategies to optimize quality and health equity, and manage utilization and total cost of care for populations in Massachusetts.

Lauren has a background in the improvement sciences, received her master’s degree in Healthcare Management from Boston University and has an unwavering commitment to providing quality care for the patients cared for by Boston Medical Center Health System and its provider partners.

Maggie Burrows, MPH

Manager, Network Operations, Boston HealthNet 

Maggie Burrows, MPH is a manager of network operations for Boston HealthNet who collaborates with our 13 affiliated health center partners on quality improvement, health information technology, and enhanced care coordination. Maggie earned her master of public health degree with a concentration in healthcare management from Boston University School of Public Health in 2021. Maggie has experience in healthcare consulting and implementing process improvement strategies. She is also certified as a Healthcare Financial Professional.

Lisa B. Caruso, MD, MPH

Vice Chair, Quality and Patient Safety, Department of Medicine
Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine, Section of Geriatrics
Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine/Boston Medical Center

Lisa B. Caruso, MD, MPH, is the Vice Chair of Quality and Patient Safety in the Department of Medicine and a practicing geriatrician. Dr. Caruso with her QI team has led BMC to their designation as an Age-Friendly Health System Committed to Care Excellence. She has extensive mentoring experience in Quality Improvement across medical and surgical specialties, from the medical student to the faculty level. Dr. Caruso’s areas of expertise and research interests include dementia, delirium, diabetes in older adults, care transitions, and resident and medical student training in quality improvement.

Shaleen Chakyayil, MD

Assistant Professor, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Shaleen Chakyayil, MD received her medical degree at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. She went on to complete an internal medicine residency under the quality improvement pathway at Boston Medical Center and now spends her clinical time as a primary care physician. She currently serves as the BMC Internal Medicine Residency Director for Quality Improvement and co-leads their quality improvement and patient safety curriculum. She enjoys fostering a love for systems improvement among trainees.

Sabine Clasen, PhD, MSN, RN

Senior Quality and Patient Safety Specialist, Department of Surgery

Sabine focuses full-time on quality and patient safety initiatives within surgical services.  She prioritizes deep conceptual understanding of safety challenges and sustainable solutions over symptomatic fixes. Sabine champions comprehensive current-state assessments that map systemic interdependencies, cultural factors and workflow realities using a complexity lens. Her approach to solutions includes a human factors lens and a collaborative workflow design that aligns with cognitive, physical, and environmental realities of frontline teams.
 

Nicholas Cordella, MD, MSc

Medical Director for Quality and Patient Safety, Boston Medical Center
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Dr. Nicholas Cordella is a physician leader in quality and patient safety, with a focus on leveraging technology to improve healthcare outcomes. As the Medical Director for Quality and Patient Safety at Boston Medical Center (BMC), he leads large-scale Quality Improvement initiatives and helps guide the hospital's overall strategy for delivering high-quality care.

In his role as Assistant Professor of Medicine at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Dr. Cordella is trained in Health Services Research, with a focus on using quasi-experimental methods to evaluate quality outcomes and develop learning health systems. His current work is centered on integrating advanced technologies, including generative AI and other emerging digital tools, to enhance healthcare delivery and improve patient outcomes.

Natalija Farrell, PharmD, BCPS, DABAT, FAACT

Senior Patient Safety Specialist – Emergency Department, Boston Medical Center
Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine

Dr. Natalija Farrell is currently the Senior Patient Safety Specialist for the Emergency Department at Boston Medical Center. After completing her post-graduate training, she began her career as an emergency medicine pharmacist and clinical toxicologist. She is passionate about quality and patient safety. She has led a number of quality improvement projects in the Emergency Department which include but are not limited to improving SEP-1 compliance, increasing access to medications for opioid use disorder, and reducing fall events.

Charise  Freundlich, MD

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics 
Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine

I have an interest in QI and have 10 years of experience mentoring fellows within my division. I participated in the ILA as a learner in 2020-2021.

 

Carrie Googins, MSN, RN, CPHQ

Director, Quality & Patient Safety, Boston Medical Center

Carrie is a long-term registered nurse with clinical background in pediatric oncology/bone marrow transplant, PICU and general pediatrics. In addition to escalating levels of clinical practice, she was a pediatric nursing instructor and adjunct faculty for two Massachusetts schools of nursing. During years of clinical practice, Carrie developed and implemented unit-based and organization-based quality assurance and quality improvement programs. She has been an active participant in several IHI programs. As Director, Quality and Patient Safety at both a community hospital and currently at BMC, she has been overseeing as well as driving successful quality improvement projects for over 15 years. She has is a certified healthcare quality professional and is certified in Lean for Healthcare and as aTeamStepps trainer. Carrie is most passionate about developing/maintaining a strong organizational culture of safety in a Just Culture, learning environment. In escalating healthcare leadership roles she greatly enjoys mentorship and relationship-based, interdisciplinary improvement processes employing a variety of evidence-based QI tools, driven by data.

Deborah Gregson, MSM

Director, Margaret M Shea Adult Day Health Program, Boston Medical Center

Deborah Gregson, MSM has 40 years’ experience in rehabilitation and hospital operations.  Deb started her healthcare career as a Certified Therapeutic Recreational Specialist in Brain Injury Rehabilitation; advancing her career from a staff therapist to a department director. Her career then transitioned to operations management within the acute care setting. After earning a dual Master of Science in Management in Health Services and Non-profit and Institutional Fund Development, she has gone on to specialize in Improvement Science, earning certificates in both Project Management and Lean in Healthcare.  Deb joined Boston Medical Center in 2013 as a Quality Improvement Project Specialist, facilitating and managing hospital-wide initiatives to meet the Intuition’s strategic quality goals. Her career came full circle in 2021 when she became the Director of BMC’s Margaret M Shea, RN Adult Day Health Program.

Emily Jansen, MPH

Ambulatory Quality Manager, Department of Quality and Patient Safety, Boston Medical Center

With over eight years of experience in the quality improvement field, Emily has led a variety of quality and safety projects primarily in the outpatient setting. She has a deep passion for working with data and enjoys supporting teams in visualizing and interpreting their data to inform better decision-making. Over the past year, her work has focused on improving radiology results routing, improving follow-up of incidental radiology findings, and collaborating with the Equity in Cancer team and the Center Implementation and Improvement Science (CIIS) to increase the return rates of FIT kits for colorectal cancer screening. Her emerging interest areas include engaging patients in improvement efforts and integrating rapid-cycle randomized controlled trial methods in quality improvement.

Janette Keddy, RN

Executive Director, Quality & Incentives at Boston Medical Center Health System

Janette is a seasoned healthcare professional with a passion for quality improvement and population health. With a background as a Registered Nurse and the Director of Quality at South Boston Community Health Center, Janette has a deep understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities in healthcare.

Leveraging her expertise, Janette transitioned to consulting, where she helped FQHCs nationwide optimize workflows and enhance quality outcomes through the effective use of population health analytics tools. Currently, Janette is leading the BMCHS approach to performance within the MassHealth ACO program, overseeing quality for a network of 8 ACO partners serving approximately 450,000 members.

Janette is a graduate of Syracuse University with a degree in Finance and Economics and Simmons University school of nursing.

Nicole Lincoln DNP, FNP-BC, CCNS

Clinical Lead Behavior Response Team, Boston Medical Center

Nicole Lincoln has been a nurse innovator, Quality Improvement mentor and nurse professional development specialist with a career that spans over 25 years. Most recently Nicole has focused on promoting and implementing frontline inspired nursing innovations, quality improvement, and nursing research, in a leadership role at this organization. Nicole has presented her teams work on workplace safety, safe communication, patient experience, fall prevention, and End of Life Care and Advance Care Planning at numerous conferences both throughout the United States and internationally. She enjoys mentoring QI Hub learners and seeing their projects evolve.

Andrea Rego, MHA, BSN, RN

Quality and Patient Safety Nurse Specialist, Boston Medical Center

Andrea joined the BMC team in 2021 with experience as a Clinical Nurse and Nurse Manager in acute care and ambulatory settings. In her role as a Quality and Patient Safety Nurse Specialist she support a portfolio of system-level quality/process improvement projects. As a department, we collaborate with cross-functional teams to identify opportunities for improvement and implement process improvements.

Pamela Carlson Rosenkranz, RN, BSN, M.Ed

Associate Professor of Surgery at Boston University, Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine
Senior Clinical Quality and Patient Safety Director, Department of Surgery

Pamela Carlson Rosenkranz RN, BSN, M.Ed has direct responsibility for overseeing, creating, implementing and evaluating all quality and patient safety programs for all surgical specialties. She independently leads a team to provide comprehensive direction, oversight and leadership to improve outcomes, diminish cost and provide value through the standardization of best practices in patient centered care across all service lines and hospital wide based on BMC strategic plans. She coaches, mentors and is involved in research opportunities to improve patient outcomes, clinical efficiency, value and patient satisfaction Over the past several years she has established a multidisciplinary collaboration to compose quality improvement and research grants within the Department of Surgery. She serves as a clinical resource to multidisciplinary teams at Boston Medical Center and as a Boston University QI Hub faculty member and Boston University as a Center for Implementation and Improvement Sciences Affiliate Faculty member. Her goal is to continue to inspire and motivate everyone she works with and mentors to ensure a culture of safety by providing the highest stand of care for our patients and families.

Bharati Sinha, MD

Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Staff Neonatologist and Director of Quality and Safety for Newborn Medicine, Boston Medical Center

Dr, Bharati Sinha completed her medical training in India, before moving to the UK and subsequently to the United States to establish a career in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine. During a large part of her career, Dr Sinha has been actively engaged in research that focused on reducing disability from stroke and newborn brain injury. Her research work in collaboration with the neuro-apoptosis lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospitals was the first to demonstrate a significant reduction in melatonin MT1 receptors in a newborn mouse model of hypoxic-ischemic brain injury. She transitioned out of her role in basic sciences to focus on quality improvement newborn initiatives both locally, nationally and internationally. Dr Sinha is the proud recipient of the William Randolf research fellowship award from Harvard Medical School and Natalie Zucker award for Women Scholars from Tuft’s University.

William Vincent, PharmD

Medication Safety Officer, Department of Pharmacy, Boston Medical Center

William Vincent, PharmD, joined BMC in 2012 as a critical care pharmacy specialist and led the development and implementation of improvement science curriculum to help pharmacy residents complete annual quality improvement projects in 2016. After conducting value-based and clinical quality improvement projects in critical care, transplant, and pharmacy operations resulting in improved pharmacy services and regional and national presentations and publications, Will joined the QI Hub Faculty in 2018. As the medication safety officer since 2023, he collaborates with staff and leaders across the hospital to improve the medication use system and promote a culture of safety within the institution. Will serves as a mentor for quality improvement initiatives in the Department of Pharmacy and with the Improvement Leadership Academy.

Deborah A. Whalen, APRN-BC, MSN, MBA

Director of Quality and Patient Safety Department of Medicine Boston Medical Center 
Assistant Professor of Medicine Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine                             

Deborah’s background blends an Advanced Practice Degree in Nursing as an Adult Nurse Practitioner well as an MBA background  which she obtained as a Commonwealth Fund Nurse Executive Fellow. Operationally she serves as  Clinical Service Manager for Cardiology for many years  before moving into Quality role in Department of Medicine. Her expertise is in  seeing opportunities for improvement and engaging frontline staff  in improving the systems they are a part of. Her work in Boston Medical Center’s Cardiac Monitoring Alarm Initiative is recognized nationally and internationally as a model for significantly reducing alarm fatigue. Currently she plays a key strategy role in engaging hospital teams is reducing hospital readmissions as well as supporting frontline teams in engaging quality improvement projects.

Charles T. Williams, MD

Clinical Associate Professor, Family Medicine

Charles Telfer Williams, MD "Charlie" (he/him) serves as Vice-Chair for Network Development for the Department of Family Medicine at Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine and as Medical Director of the Boston HealthNet (BHN), the network of 12 community health centers affiliated with Boston Medical Center. His main passions at work are quality improvement and leadership development. He increasingly interested in sustainability, in its broadest meaning –considering everything from environmental impact to life-work balance for individuals. He has experience with practice re-design, including implementation of open access, a project redesigning the referrals process at Boston Medical Center (AHRQ 2008) and helping practices at Boston Medical Center achieve NCQA Level 3 PCMH recognition, improving blood pressure control and cancer screening.

As Vice-chair, his primary duties are guiding growth and development of the Family Medicine practices across the BHN network, mentoring faculty, serving as a local resource for quality improvement, managing privileging, and serving as a liaison with the Community Health Center practices. He is also the chair of the Family Medicine compensation committee.

As the Medical Director of BHN, his focus is on improving the quality of care across the entire network which serves approximately 268,000 patients with the goal of optimizing the health in a sustainable way. He has helped to lead practice transformation of the Patient Centered Medical Home efforts at BMC and in the CHCs through the state’s Primary Care Payment Reform Initiative. He is continuing this work with BMC's in Medicaid ACO development focusing on clinical systems.

His teaching interests include quality improvement, practice management, electronic health records, evidence-based medicine, leadership development, bioethics and interviewing skills. Since 2001 He has overseen quality improvement for the Family Medicine department at BMC while serving as Medical Director for the hospital-based Family Medicine practice. In 2003 he became the founding Medical Director of the East Boston Community Health Center Family Medicine Department. He was a leader in the clinical implementation of different Electronic Health Records in both practices. A graduate of University of Wisconsin - Madison (B.S. - Bioethics 1990, M.D. 1994) and the Brown Practice Medicine residency program, he also has research experience in Medical Ethics. He is a diplomate of the American Board Family Medicine, amd a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians, Massachusetts Academy of Family Physicians, the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

At BMC, he serves as chair of the Medical Staff Professional Practice Evaluation Committee and on the BMC credentials committee.