Glenn Laffel

Glenn Laffel, MD, PhD (born February 19, 1954) is a physician and a successful entrepreneur. He currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Clinical Affairs for Practice Fusion, a San Francisco-based company that offers a Web-based Electronic Health Record (EHR) for free to physicians.

During his 30 year career in health care, Laffel has been an attending physician in the cardiac transplantation program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding editor of the peer-reviewed journal, Quality Management in Health Care, a consultant to healthcare provider organizations, and President of Clinical Solutions.

Career

From 1987 until 1992, Laffel was an attending physician in the heart transplantation program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School . The program was the first of its kind in New England. He was part of an investigative team that first reported a link between Cyclosporine A, prednisone and osteoporosis in heart transplant recipients, and published an article on the relationship between experience and outcomes in heart transplantation .

During this time, he also served as the Director of Quality Management at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In that capacity, he helped establish one of the first Total Quality Management programs in health care and, along with David Blumenthal, published one of the first articles to appear in a peer reviewed journal on the health care applications of TQM. He also coauthored papers with Eugene Braunwald, the Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Harvey Fineberg, the Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health (and current President of the Institute of Medicine), and Donald Berwick, the President of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (and currently President Obama’s nominee to serve as Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services).

Beginning in March of 1988, Laffel co-developed and taught a flagship course, Improving Health Care Quality for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement . Other course developers included Donald Berwick, Paul Plsek and David Gustafson. Laffel also founded a peer-reviewed journal, Quality Management in Health Care during this time.

In 1997, Laffel and two partners, Harry Harrington and Dennis McShane, MD, founded Clinical Solutions, a Menlo Park-based company for which Laffel served as President. Clinical Solutions created and licensed algorithmic content for use in nurse triage call centers.

By 2003, Clinical Solutions’ triage algorithms had become the most widely used in the world. They have been used to provide advice to more than 40 million callers in several countries. The most notable deployments of Clinical Solutions’ content were by NHS Direct, a toll-free national service provided to all UK citizens by the British National Health Service, Queensland Health (Australia), and the New South Wales Ambulance Service (Australia). All three still use Clinical Solutions’ content.

In conjunction with Priority Dispatch Corporation, Clinical Solutions also created the world’s first fully integrated 911-nurse triage product. The integrated product is currently being used by ambulance dispatch organizations in several countries.

Clinical Solutions was acquired by its primary licensor, CAS Services (UK) in 2006.

Laffel joined Practice Fusion in December, 2008 as the Senior Vice President for Clinical Affairs. Practice Fusion offers a Web-based Electronic Health Record (EHR) for free to providers. Laffel oversees business development and regulatory affairs for the San Francisco-based company.

Laffel blogs at EHRBloggers.com, and Pizaazz.com, and tweets for Practice Fusion at Twitter.com/Practicefusion .

Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1986 — 1991

Laffel received his PhD in Health Policy and Management from MIT in 1991. The subject of his dissertation was the relationship between experience and outcome in heart transplantation. A condensed version of his dissertation was published in New England Journal of Medicine.

University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, 1976 — 1980

Laffel attended the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine from 1976 through 1980. He received a medical degree and was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha , the national medical honor society.

Tufts University, 1972 — 1976

Laffel attended Tufts University from 1972 through 1976. He received an undergraduate degree in Biology and Psychology, and graduated with Magna Cum Laude honors. While there, he worked as a jazz disc jockey for the school’s radio station, WMFO.

Training

Brigham and Women’s Hospital, 1980 — 1987

Laffel completed a 3-year medical residency in Internal Medicine and a 3-year fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, an academic medical center and a major teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School .

External Links

Practice Fusion EHRBloggers Pizaazz Twitter: Practice Fusion