Confirmed Speakers
Invited speakers will provide inspiration and insight into Leading Sustainable, Next-Generation Improvement. We are delighted to confirm the following esteemed speakers for the event.
Dr. Omar Lateef serves as the president and CEO of RUSH. In May 2019, he was appointed as president and CEO of RUSH University Medical Center, took on the role of president of RUSH in 2021, and became CEO in July 2022. Dr. Lateef has led RUSH forward toward the future of health care with a steadfast eye on quality and equity. Looking towards the future, RUSH is expanding its reach, making care more accessible through a robust digital experience strategy, new locations, and extensive partnerships.
Prior to becoming president and CEO of RUSH University Medical Center, Dr. Lateef was its chief medical officer. He earned a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from the University of Florida-Gainesville in 1995. He received his medical degree from Des Moines University and completed his internship and residency at New York University Downtown Hospital. He completed a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at RUSH University Medical Center in 2005.
Elaine Mead is Executive Director of Improvement, Care and Compassion, IC&C, an organization committed to supporting leaders on their improvement journey across the UK and Europe. Elaine has enjoyed over 35 years experience working in clinical, managerial and executive roles within the National Health Service across the UK. Elaine originally trained as a radiographer with experience in general, research and academic settings. She was privileged to serve as the Chief Executive of NHS Highland for eight years. In this role Elaine was responsible for the development of the first fully integrated health and care system in Scotland, which continues to support services across 41% of the most remote and rural land mass of the UK. Elaine is a passionate ambassador for continuous quality improvement and led the development of the Highland Quality Approach, a management system supporting NHS Highland to improve quality of care based on increasing value.
Elaine has become increasingly alert to the impact of healthcare on climate change, population health, and pollution and combines these interests as PhD candidate at University College Dublin, researching the potential interface between quality improvement and sustainable healthcare. Elaine was past Chair of the International Alliance of Water
Stewardship where she remains an active board member and was awarded Fellowship status for her work as Chair of the Greener Health Special Interest Group for the UK Institute of Health and Social Care Management. Elaine coaches and supports teams at Board and Executive on quality management systems, leading for improvement and sustainability as Leadership Faculty for the Institute of Health Improvement and was Executive Sensei for NHS Improvement Vital Signs programme in England. As a founding member of the Catalysis European CEO Forum, Elaine now continues to connect colleagues across Europe as Lead Faculty, facilitating and supporting the Forum Gemba visits from her base in Scotland.
Dr. John Toussaint is an Internist and one of the foremost figures in the adoption of organizational excellence principles in healthcare. In 2008 he founded Catalysis, a nonprofit education institute, that has launched peer-to-peer learning networks, developed in-depth workshops, and created many products – including books, DVDs and webinars. Catalysis sponsors the annual Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit in both the U.S. and in Europe. Dr. Toussaint has published articles in major medical journals such as Health Affairs and JAMA as well as major business journals such as Harvard Business Review. He has written three award winning books chronicling the journey of many organizations on the journey to enterprise excellence. He continues to be a student of building excellence into healthcare operations, learning from over 220 organizations in 19 countries, transferring this knowledge into articles and books and to executive teams around the world.
Seán Paul Teeling, PhD is a Lecturer, Researcher and Fellow in Teaching and Academic Development at University College Dublin, Ireland. He lectures and researches in person-centered process improvement and has received teaching excellence awards at both college and university level. Over the last eight years, he has collaborated with both clinical practice and research-based colleagues in the development of a person-centered model of Lean Six Sigma, officially launched in 2023, and now in use in healthcare facilities in six countries. Dr. Teeling is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, an accredited facilitator of Person-Centred Cultures in Healthcare, and is an honorary senior research fellow with the Centre for Person-Centred Practice Research, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, Scotland. His research focuses on the impacts of improvement on all involved in care delivery, both patients and staff. Prior to his current role, Dr Teeling had a clinical background in general and pediatric nursing, working in and managing Operating Room (OR) services internationally. He co-founded the Mater Lean Academy, a joint enterprise with University College Dublin and the Mater Misericordiae University hospital, which celebrated a decade of improvement in 2023. The Academy co-delivers practice-based person-centered improvement programs and has facilitated over 350 substantive improvement initiatives with 52 clinical partners in the last decade.
Beth Ripley MD, PhD is the Deputy Chief for the Office of Healthcare Innovation and Learning for the Veterans Health Administration and is an Associate Professor of Radiology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. In this role, she oversees a diverse portfolio of over 150 innovation projects across the Veterans Health Administration. She was the founding Director for the enterprise-wide VHA Office of Advanced Manufacturing, which has an ambitious goal: for every VA Medical Center to have access to 3D printing services, providing patient-specific health care solutions to all 9 million Veterans. She was the recipient of the 2020 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal for Science and the Environment for her work with 3D Printing in VHA. She collaborates across multiple disciplines and has a passion for innovation and human-centered design.
Dr. Nigam Shah is Professor of Medicine at Stanford University, and Chief Data Scientist for Stanford Health Care. His research is focused on bringing AI into clinical use, safely, ethically. and cost-effectively. Dr. Shah leads artificial intelligence and data science efforts for advancing the scientific understanding of disease, improving the practice of clinical medicine and orchestrating the delivery of health care.
Dr. Nigam Shah is Professor of Medicine at Stanford University, and Chief Data Scientist for Stanford Health Care. His research is focused on bringing AI into clinical use, safely, ethically. and cost-effectively. Dr. Shah leads artificial intelligence and data science efforts for advancing the scientific understanding of disease, improving the practice of clinical medicine and orchestrating the delivery of health care.
Mojgan Amini, M.S. Computer Science, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, serves as the Director of Process Management & Continuous Improvement at UC San Diego’s Information Technology Services department, overseeing the Project Portfolio Management Office, the Continuous Improvement (Lean Six Sigma) program, Proactive Service Management, Business Analysis, Communications and Outreach, and Organizational Change Management. Mojgan is a U.S. patent holder, CIO-100 Trailblazer, UC-wide innovation award recipient, as well as leader of several technical industry committees. She currently serves as chair of UC San Diego’s Artificial Intelligence in Administration Workgroup, as well as Process Palooza an annual process improvement extravaganza.
Dr. Rachel Thienprayoon is the Chief Clinical Wellness Officer and an Associate Professor of Anesthesia and Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. She completed pediatrics residency and a pediatric hematology/oncology fellowship at the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas, Texas, and her fellowship in pediatric hospice and palliative care at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, OH. She has been a faculty member in the Palliative Care team at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center since 2014. She is member of the Board of Directors of the Palliative Care Quality Collaborative and is outgoing Chair of the Pediatric Division of the National Coalition for Hospice and Palliative Care. Her research focuses on measuring clinician experiences of compassion within teams and organizations. She lives in Cincinnati, OH with her husband, Paul, and their two girls.
Dr. David B. Larson is a Professor and Executive Vice Chair in the Department of Radiology at Stanford University. He is a national thought leader in radiology quality improvement and patient safety, and author & regular speaker regarding topics ranging from pediatric CT radiation dose optimization to radiologist peer review. At Stanford, he is the principal author and leader of multiple improvement training and project support programs, including the Realizing Improvement through Team Empowerment (RITE) program, Clinical Effectiveness Leadership Training (CELT) program, and Advanced Course in Improvement Science (ACIS) program, which have trained more than 2,500 participants in 350 improvement teams over the past decade. He also developed and leads the Stanford Medicine Improvement Capability Development Program (ICDP), which coordinates departmental improvement efforts across the medical center.
Dr. Larson also developed and leads the Radiology Improvement Summit held annually at Stanford, now in its tenth year. He is a member of the Board of Chancellors of the American College of Radiology, serving as the Chair of the ACR Commission on Quality and Safety. In this role, he spearheaded the development of the ACR Learning Network, which has trained and supported more than 250 participants on 50 teams from radiology programs from across the country. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of the American Board of Radiology, overseeing quality and safety.
Dr. Larson holds a BS degree in mechanical engineering from Brigham Young University and MD and MBA degrees from Yale University. He completed his residency and fellowship training at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, Colorado.
Alok Patel, MD is a pediatric hospitalist, medical journalist, on-camera expert, producer, and devotee of creative, engaging science communication tactics. He currently serves as the Faculty Director of Communications for the Department of Pediatrics. Through this role, he helps coordinate creative media strategies for awareness, education, advocacy, recruitment and more.
Dr. Patel has extensive experience in broadcast journalism, on-camera work, script writing, podcast hosting, media consulting, and designing social media campaigns and hopes to lend these skills to his work in public health messaging. He currently works as a pediatric hospitalist within the department of pediatrics at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.
