Robert Wachter MD | UCSF Chairman of the Department of Medicine and chief of the Division of Hospital Medicine.

Robert Wachter MD

UCSF Chairman of the Department of Medicine and chief of the Division of Hospital Medicine.

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Robert Wachter MD
Featured Keynote Programs

“The Quality, Safety, and Value Movements
Why Transforming the Delivery of Healthcare is No Longer Elective.”

In this talk, I review the brief history of the quality and safety movements, the new push for “value” (quality + safety + patient satisfaction divided by cost), and how all of these levers (accreditation, regulation, transparency, payment changes) are combining to create unprecedented pressure on caregivers and delivery organizations to change their ways of doing business. Rather than being depressed, audiences leave with a deep understanding of healthcare’s new landscape, and a roadmap (and some optimism) for success in this new world.

“What We Need to Know and Do to Cure our Epidemic of Medical Mistakes.”

A case- based, dramatic talk that describes a new way to think about medical errors. It is the Cliff Notes version of my bestselling books, Internal Bleeding and Understanding Patient Safety. The talk is suitable for novices, experts, and even lay audiences.

Related reading:
a. Wachter RM, Shojania KG. Internal Bleeding: The Truth Behind America’s Terrifying Epidemic of Medical Mistakes. New York: Rugged Land, 2004.
b. Wachter RM. Understanding Patient Safety, 2nd Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012.

“Patient Safety a Decade after the IOM Report on Medical Errors
Unmistakable Progress and Troubling Gaps.”

A more policy-oriented talk than #1; more appropriate for advanced audiences (ie, leaders in quality and safety). The talk chronicles what is and is not working (regulation, IT, reporting, accountability, etc.) in our efforts to prevent medical mistakes.

Related reading: Wachter RM. Patient safety at ten: Unmistakable progress, troubling gaps. Health Affairs 2010;29:165-73. Epub 2009 Dec 1.

Wachter RM, Pronovost PJ. Balancing “no blame” and accountability in patient safety. New England Journal of Medicine 2009; 361:1401-6.

“The ‘Great Physician’ of 2012
Embracing the New Without Abandoning the Good Parts of the Old.”

The pressures to mint a new type of physician – one more focused on teamwork and systems – are strong and largely correct. In this talk, I review why it is critical that physicians embrace these new skills and attitudes, but I also highlight some of the unanticipated and potentially negative consequences of an unbalanced move away from the traditional emphasis on individual excellence.

Related reading: Wachter RM. Gregory House, MD, RIP. USA Today, May 22, 2012.

“Consequences (Expected and Otherwise) of the Quality and Information Technology Revolutions.”

The talk is a slightly contrarian view of these trends, two of the most dominant issues facing health care today. Most talks on these issues are dry and pat; clinical audiences leave this talk thinking about these topics in a new, fresh way.

Related reading: Wachter RM. Expected and unanticipated consequences of the quality and information technology revolutions. JAMA 2006; 295:2780-3.

“The Hospitalist Movement 15 Years Later
Key Issues for the Second Decade.”

I coined the term “hospitalist” in the NEJM in 1996. I cover the forces driving the growth of the field, the fastest growing specialty in the history of medicine, and what’s to come.

Related readings:
a. Wachter RM, Goldman L. The emerging role of “hospitalists” in the American health care system. New England Journal of Medicine 1996; 335:514-7.
b. Wachter RM. Hospitalists in the United States: Mission accomplished or work-in-progress. New England Journal of Medicine 2004; 350: 1935-6.
c. Wachter RM. The hospitalist field turns 15: New opportunities and challenges. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2011; 6: E1–E4.

Other Speech Topics

In addition to the above talks, I can also speak on a variety of more specific topics in safety and quality (as keynote or plenary, or as a breakout), including:
• “Quality Measurement, Reporting and P4P: Where Are We Going?”
• “Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch: The Role of Culture in Patient Safety”
• “Is There a Business Case to Invest in Quality and Patient Safety?”
• “Why Diagnostic Errors Get No Respect… And What Can Be Done To Fix That”
• “Lessons From a Sabbatical: What the British Healthcare System Can Teach Us About Safety, Quality, Access, Primary Care, and Rationing”
• Patient Safety in 2012: A Decade of Successes, Failures, Surprises, and Epiphanies.”
• “Use Your Words: Understanding the New Vocabulary of Healthcare Reform”

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Robert Wachter MD

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