Speaker Biographies

Gerry Castro, PhD, MPH, PMP

Gerry Castro is director of quality improvement for the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine (SIDM). Prior to joining SIDM he was the project director for patient safety initiatives in the Office of Patient Safety at the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (Joint Commission). Castro was the principal investigator for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT project “Investigations of Health IT-related Deaths, Serious Injuries or Unsafe Conditions.” Prior to joining the Joint Commission, he was the health information coordinator for the Village of Oak Park Department of Public Health in Illinois. His professional efforts are focused on improving patient safety through defining and applying evidence-based strategies in healthcare. He received his undergraduate degree from Loyola University in Chicago and his master’s degree in public health from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He received a doctorate in public health sciences from the University of Illinois at Chicago focusing on patient safety and safety event analysis.

Shelly Davis, JD, BSN

Shelly Davis is director of early intervention at Constellation. In this role, she works with insureds when unexpected outcomes occur. Early intervention facilitates trust and good will between providers and their patients. Before obtaining her law degree from William Mitchell College of Law, Davis worked as a registered nurse throughout Chicago and within the Mayo Clinic system. Her past practice as a medical malpractice lawyer and nurse gives her a unique perspective when handling claims and lawsuits. She appreciates the risks inherent in providing health care. She has represented healthcare providers and facilities in medical negligence claims, during pre-litigation claims and during investigations of unexpected outcomes in health care. She is a frequent lecturer on the topics of medical malpractice, medical negligence claims and risks associated with being a healthcare provider.

Laurie C. Drill-Mellum, MD, MPH

Dr. Laurie C. Drill-Mellum brings more than 30 years as a practicing physician to help guide Constellation’s work of supporting healthcare organizations in order to free physicians and other clinicians to focus on their mission: to help, to heal and to serve. An MD with a master’s degree in public health, she brings a physician’s perspective as well as that of patients and family members in Constellation’s efforts to promote patient safety and mitigate risk. Dr. Drill-Mellum’s passion for, and background in, the studies of culture, behavior, leadership and integrative medicine fuel her commitment and drive in serving the mission of Constellation. She provides insights to health practitioners’ perspectives, challenges and lives and is a fierce advocate for the wellbeing of those practicing medicine on the front lines of care and the critical importance of supporting them when they’ve been involved in a patient-harm event. Preventing these events and mitigating harm once they occur is the core of her dedication to her work.

Tom Evans, MD, FAAFP

Dr. Tom Evans is president and CEO of the Iowa Healthcare Collaborative. He practiced family medicine for 13 years and served as chief medical officer for UnityPoint Health. Dr. Evans has served on the board for the National Patient Safety Foundation and on the delegations for both the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians. He served as president of both the Iowa Medical Society and the Iowa Academy of Family Physicians. Dr. Evans is a faculty member with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the College of Medicine at Des Moines University and the College of Public Health at the University of Iowa.

Thomas H. Gallagher, MD

Dr. Thomas H. Gallagher is a general internist who is Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington, where he is Associate Chair for Patient Care Quality, Safety, and Value. He is also a Professor in the Department of Bioethics and Humanities. He also is Executive Director of the Collaborative for Accountability and Improvement, an organization dedicated to advancing the spread of Communication and Resolution Programs. Dr. Gallagher’s research addresses the interfaces between healthcare quality, communication, and transparency. Dr. Gallagher received his medical degree from Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Barnes Hospital, Washington University, St. Louis, and completed a fellowship in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, UCSF.

Bruce Lambert, PhD

Bruce Lambert received his doctorate in speech communication from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a professor in the Department of Communication Studies and director of the Center for Communication and Health at Northwestern University. His research focuses on health communication, patient safety and medical liability reform. Lambert is the principal investigator on a five-year grant, funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, to study techniques for preventing wrong-drug and wrong-patient errors. He is president of BLL Consulting and Pharm IR, firms that solve problems involving health, communication and technology. He blogs about communication at howcommunicationworks.com.

Missy Lindow

Missy Lindow serves as the director of clinic operations and access at Lakewood Health System in Staples, Minnesota. Passionate about improving access to quality healthcare in rural areas, Lindow has been dedicated to making a difference in the health and wellbeing of rural Minnesota communities for nearly 20 years. Lindow received her bachelor’s degree in healthcare management from St. Catherine University and her certificate in law and leadership in healthcare administration for Michell Hamline School of Law. Lakewood Health System (LHS) is an independent rural healthcare system founded in 1936 with a hospital and clinic in Staples, primary care clinics in Browerville, Eagle Bend, Motley and Pillager and a dermatology clinic and skin and laser center in Sartell. LHS is a recognized leader in providing innovative, patient-based care including women’s specialty services, senior services, surgical and outreach care.

Timothy McDonald, MD, JD

Dr. Timothy McDonald is chief patient safety and risk officer at RLDatix and professor of law at Loyola University Chicago. Dr. McDonald is a physician-attorney whose research has focused on the principled approach to patient harm with an emphasis on reporting of patient safety events, the use of simulation and human factors analysis and providing open and honest communication following harm events. His federally funded research has focused on these domains and their impact on improving the quality of care while mitigating medical liability and other legal-related issues.

David E. Newman-Toker, MD, PhD

Dr. David E. Newman-Toker is a Professor of Neurology, Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He also holds joint appointments in Emergency Medicine and Health Sciences Informatics at the School of Medicine, as well as in Epidemiology and Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Newman-Toker also serves as the President of the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine. Dr. Newman-Toker’s academic mission is to eliminate harms from diagnostic errors and maximize the accuracy and efficiency of diagnostic testing in clinical practice. He is as a core faculty member of the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, where he serves as Director of the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute Center for Diagnostic Excellence, focused on enhancing diagnostic safety, quality and value. Dr. Newman-Toker’s research focuses on preventing missed strokes in the emergency department and primary care, especially among patients presenting with acute, severe vertigo or dizziness.

Andrew Olson, MD

Dr. Andrew Olson is an associate professor of medicine and pediatrics at the University of Minnesota Medical School, where he practices hospital medicine and pediatrics. He serves as the Director of Medical Educator Development and Scholarship at the Medical School and is the founding director of the Medical School. Dr. Olson's areas of interest and study are the development of expertise in decision-making, methods to improve diagnostic reasoning education and competency-based medical education. He is also the co-chair of the Education Committee of the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine. 

Julia Prentice, PhD

Julia Prentice leads the research portfolio at the Betsy Lehman Center. Her projects focus on measuring the prevalence of adverse events, understanding the public perception regarding the long-term impacts of medical error and the health system response, and evaluating the effectiveness of key quality improvement initiatives. Her previous work in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) focused on advancing the ability of healthcare systems to enact evidence-based policy and clinical practice. She was the first to find a consistent relationship between longer appointment wait times for VA healthcare services and poorer patient-level satisfaction and health outcomes. In 2013, this work provided the evidence base for a change in access metrics used by the VA and helped to address the access crisis in 2014. Prentice received her doctorate in public health from UCLA, where she also earned her master’s degree in public health. As an undergraduate she studied biology and sociology at Grinnell College.

Suzanne Schrandt

Suzanne Schrandt is a patient and patient engagement advocate with a health and disability law and policy background. She serves as the senior patient engagement advisor to the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine (SIDM), where she helps incorporate patient insights and voices to fuel improvements in the diagnostic process. Schrandt previously served as the director of patient engagement at the Arthritis Foundation, where she led the Foundation’s Patient Engagement strategy and as the deputy director of patient engagement for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Schrandt’s background includes work in bioethics, genetic discrimination and chronic disease self-management, as well as a long history in patient-led clinical training aimed at increasing early diagnosis and appropriate, patient centered management of chronic disease. Schrandt’s passion for patient engagement began in large part from her own experience, having been diagnosed with polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis as a teenager. Schrandt received her law degree from the University of Kansas School of Law.

Dana Siegal, RN, CPHRM, CPPS

Dana Siegal is the director of patient safety for CRICO Strategies, where she provides analytical and educational services to leading academic medical centers, community hospitals and physician practices on the issues of medical liability and patient safety. She evaluates the risk profiles of healthcare organizations throughout the country, assessing where current vulnerabilities exist and making recommendations for prioritizing action plans. Additionally, she provides detailed analysis of medical malpractice claims, with a specific focus on Diagnostic, OB, EHR and Emergency Medicine. Siegal has 30 years’ experience in healthcare quality and risk management, ranging from front line clinical care as an emergency room nurse, to front line risk management where she was involved in all aspects of incident reporting, sentinel event management, root cause analysis and credentialing. She has worked closely with clinicians and administrators in development and implementation of incident reporting systems and has extensive experience in the analysis of hospital and provider performance data and development of patient safety initiatives in a variety of clinical practice settings. Siegal is a Registered Nurse and is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Risk Management and a Certified Professional in Patient Safety.

Mary Theurer

Mary Theurer is an active community member in Staples, MN. She is the Lakewood Health System District Board chair, serves on the Lakewood Health System Board, Patient and Family Advisory Council, Patient Experience, Finance and Governance committees. She is the Trustee Council chair for the Minnesota Hospital Association and acts as a community representative on the Dx-Stop Dropping the Ball grant program. Theurer is fully versed on all aspects of insurance products including negotiating renewals, setting stoploss levels and presenting various renewal options to the self-insured pool. She holds a bachelor’s degree in human biology as well as a doctor of chiropractic degree.