Dr. Hardeep Singh earns prestigious award for improving patient safety by National Quality Forum, The Joint Commission

Dr. Hardeep Singh, professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and chief of the Health Policy, Quality & Informatics Program at the Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety (IQuESt) at the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, has been recognized with the prestigious John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award in the individual achievement category.  
The award, presented annually by the Joint Commission and the National Quality Forum (NQF), recognizes major individual, local and national achievements in healthcare that improve patient safety and healthcare quality. Singh received the Eisenberg award for demonstrating exceptional leadership and scholarship in patient safety and healthcare quality through a substantive lifetime body of work.

Singh is recognized for his pioneering career in diagnostic safety and health information technology safety. He has defined the burden, conceptual understanding and solutions for addressing diagnostic error and led important national and international initiatives to improve safety and safe use of health IT. Singh has succeeded in translating his research into pragmatic strategies and innovations for improving patient safety.

Over the course of his career, he has partnered with institutions such as the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) to develop and implement tools to improve healthcare IT, including applications to improve diagnosis. For example, he helped co-develop the “ONC SAFER Guides” that help hospitals perform a safety assessment of their electronic health record to address a wide range of patient safety issues related to health IT use. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will require all eligible U.S. hospitals to use SAFER Guides starting in 2022. Many of his developments, such as E-trigger tools, an eight-dimension sociotechnical model for health IT, and resources and checklists for communicating test results to patients and providers, are in use across the country to improve patient care.

“As an immigrant and an international medical graduate, I have always aspired to make an impact on U.S. healthcare. Advancing Dr. Eisenberg’s legacy through this award is thus an incredible honor of a lifetime,” Singh said. “Such an award is never a one-person show. I am grateful to my mentors, collaborators and team members for their unwavering support and thank the jury panel for their vote of confidence.”

Singh’s work bridges silos between researchers, clinicians and health system leaders and also has influenced initiatives and policy work from additional stakeholders including National Quality Forum, the Joint Commission, National Academies, American Medical Association, American College of Physicians, and the World Health Organization.

The patient safety awards program, launched in 2002, honors the late Dr. John M. Eisenberg, former administrator of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and an impassioned advocate for healthcare quality improvement.
NQF and the Joint Commission will host an in-person award ceremony in July to celebrate the awardees and their accomplishments with the quality ecosystem. The ceremony also will be streamed online.