Faculty

Barnard co-directs the Advanced Quality Seminar in the Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety program and has been a member of the faculty since the inception of the program. Barnard received her MBA in healthcare and economics from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, MS from the Spertus Institute and PhD in Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety in the Health Sciences Integrated Program at Northwestern University.

Barnard serves as vice president for quality for Northwestern Memorial HealthCare, an 11-hospital integrated academic health system anchored by Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago and partnered with the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. There she is responsible for quality, patient safety, infection prevention, accreditation and medical ethics. 

She serves as site PI for two funded research and quality implementation project focused on patient-reported outcomes and co-production of clinical outcomes. Her areas of interest are reflected in more than 50 papers and several books she has authored or co-authored: measurement, evaluation and improvement strategies in quality, patient safety, equity and infection prevention; engagement of patients in quality improvement; and leadership, change management and health policy. 

Barnard received the Feinberg School of Medicine Michael M. Ravitch Award for outstanding teaching of medical students in a small group setting in 2017 and the Otho S.A. Sprague Memorial Institute Recognition Award in Patient Safety in 2008. She has been associate editor of the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety since 2019. 

Barnard loves teaching in the Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety Graduate Program and the process of continual learning through students’ ideas, interests and dilemmas. She finds the HQPS program unique in its blend of theory, applied learning and interdisciplinary encounters.

Kricke is assistant professor of General Internal Medicine & Geriatrics in the Department of Medicine. She teaches the Advanced Patient Safety course in the HQPS program. Kricke was a grantee of the AHRQ Grants for Health Services Research Dissertation Program (R36).

Kricke completed her MSW at the University of Michigan School of Social Work and her PhD at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Health Sciences Integrated Program. Her research interests lie in the areas of end-of-life care quality, care coordination, population health, health equity and primary care.

She has served on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Potentially Preventable Readmissions Technical Expert Panel and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Quality of Patient Care Star Ratings Technical Expert Panel. Kricke has authored several scholarly articles in the areas of quality and safety.

Kricke’s personal goal for contributing to quality and safety education at Northwestern is to help create quality and safety leaders with the conceptual, strategic and tactical knowledge needed to solve complex healthcare problems. In her operational work, she regularly engages with people who understand that aspects of the care they provide could be better or safer, but they do not always have the skills to improve them. She enjoys teaching in the program because she can help healthcare professionals to be better equipped to tackle real-world challenges every day to make care of higher quality and safer for patients.

Publications

• Kricke G, Roemer P, Barnard C, Piepert JD, Henschen BL, Bierman JA, Blahnik D, Grant M, & Linder JA. Rapid Implementation of an Outpatient Covid-19 Monitoring Program. NEJM Catalyst. 2020 June. https://catalyst.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/cat.20.0214.
• Kricke G, Woods D, Arbaje A, Jordan N. Nonsymptomatic Factors More Strongly Associated with High-Quality End-of-Life Care than Symptomatic Factors for Community-Dwelling Older Adults with Multiple Chronic Conditions. J Palliat Med. 2019 May;22(5):522-531. doi: 10.1089/jpm.2018.0389. Epub 2019 Jan 7. PubMed PMID: 30614749; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6531899.

Liebovitz is an associate vice-chair in the Department of Medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine. He also is co-director of the Center for Medical Education in Data Science & Digital Health within the Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine. He is a Capstone course director in the HQPS program.

Liebovitz completed his MD at the University of Illinois at Chicago and his undergraduate studies in electrical engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests lie in the areas of clinical informatics and caring for patients with COVID-19. In his CMIO roles, Liebovitz directed many quality and safety initiatives. A representative example includes workflow-based prompts to ensure access to the Illinois Prescription Monitoring Program prior to prescribing. Automated workflow-based incorporation of relevant information ensured all new prescriptions (100 percent) leveraged this external resource prior to prescribing.

In addition to his research and quality/safety experience, Liebovitz has served on the Northwestern Medicine Health System Informatics Committee and Pharmacy and Therapeutics Biologics Subcommittee and is chair on the Illinois Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Advisory Committee. He has authored several scholarly articles.

Liebovitz’ personal goals for contributing to quality and safety education in the HQPS program include mentoring students to craft their own career plans based on his belief that one size does not fit all in this space. His goals also include continued work with mentees and capstone students to apply their skills in their present positions while also helping identify future opportunities for career growth.

Publications

• Liebovitz DM. Machining a New Layer of Drug Safety. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2020 Jan;46(1):1–2.
• Kao C-K, Liebovitz DM. Consumer mobile health apps: Current state, barriers, and future directions. PM&R. 2017;9(5):S106–15.

Mushtaq completed medical school at The Aga Khan University and his Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology Fellowship at the University of Cincinnati. He has an MS in Healthcare Quality and Safety from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Mushtaq is co-director of the Introduction to Healthcare Quality and Safety Course.

He is a full-time practicing interventional cardiologist and has broad practical experience in clinical integration, quality program development and quality assessment and improvement.

Mushtaq is co-chair of Northwestern Medicine’s Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute Quality Committee as well as the Interventional Labs Value Analysis Committee. He serves on multiple health system quality committees.

Mushtaq’s main focus is on cardiovascular quality program development and creating alignment and standardization across the health system to facilitate clinical integration. His main clinical interest is interventional cardiology, particularly invasive exercise hemodynamics.

O’Leary is a professor in the Department of Medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine and a Capstone co-director in the HQPS program. He received the National Award for Excellence in Teamwork in Quality Improvement from the Society of Hospital Medicine in 2013. In 2015, he received the Leape Ahead Award from the American Association for Physician Leadership. Most recently, he was given the Eisenberg Award for Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality at the Local Level by The Joint Commission and National Quality Forum in 2020.

O’Leary completed his MD at the University of Illinois, Chicago and his MS in Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety at Northwestern University in 2009. His primary research interest is in interprofessional collaboration and teamwork. He serves as principal investigator of the Redesigning Systems to Enhance Teamwork and Quality for Hospitalized Patients project, a study funded through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality that provides mentored implementation to help hospitals redesign clinical microsystems to improve patient outcomes.

O’Leary led efforts in implementation of the following features on the Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s general medicine services designed to improve patient care, including unit-based physician teams, unit nurse-physician co-leadership and structured interdisciplinary rounds. He led the development of the Northwestern Medicine Academy for Quality and Safety Improvement, a professional development program to train leaders in quality improvement. He also serves as a deputy editor for the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. 

O’Leary serves as co-chair for the Northwestern Memorial Hospital Quality Management Committee. He is also the medical director for Quality and Northwestern Memorial Hospital. He has authored several scholarly articles in the areas of quality and safety. One of the reasons he supports the HQPS program is because he is an alum and continually benefits from the training he received. O’Leary also appreciates the diversity of students who go through the program, students who work to improve care for a wide range of patient populations. As a Capstone co-director, he listens carefully and asks questions that allow students to discover their own insights about challenges to their projects and optimal solutions.

Publications

• O’Leary KJ, Buck R, Fligiel HM, Haviley C, Slade ME, Landler MP, Kulkarni N, Hinami K, Lee J, Cohen SE, Williams MV, Wayne DB. Structured Interdisciplinary Rounds in a Medical Teaching Unit: Improving Patient Safety. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2011;171:678-84.
• O’Leary KJ, Fant AL, Thurk J, Bilimoria KY, Didwania AK, Gleason KM, Groth M, Holl JL, Knoten CA, Martin GJ, O’Sullivan P, Schumacher M, Woods DM. Immediate and Long Term Effects of a Team-Based Quality Improvement Training Program. BMJ Quality & Safety. 2019;28:363-373.

Shalowitz is a professor of Preventive Medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine. He teaches Introduction to US Health Systems and The Business of Quality and Safety Improvement. In 2013, he was named to list of 100 Great Health Administration Professors by the MHA Guide. He received the American College of Healthcare Executives Service Award in 2016 as well as the Northwestern University Program in Public Health Teaching Excellence Award, and the Program in Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety Teaching Award that same year.

Shalowitz completed his MD at Alpert Medical School, Brown University and his MBA at Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. His research interests lie in the areas of quality assessment, managed care, ambulatory care management, international healthcare systems and cultural determinants of the structure of healthcare systems.

Shalowitz serves as vice chair of the AUPHA Committee on Quality and is the founding chair of the Quality and Compliance Committee, Alexian Brothers Medical Center. He is the head of quality review for The Medical Care Group (an IPA comprised of several hundred physicians). Shalowitz has authored several scholarly articles in the areas of quality and safety.

He says: "The U.S. has many different healthcare systems that do not always work together to ensure optimal quality and safety. The HQS 420 course provides a detailed roadmap for navigating these systems and understanding how the whole is supposed to fit together. Successful implementation of quality and safety in organizations requires knowledge of 'how business gets done.' The HQS 510 course teaches essential organizational management skills required to accomplish successful program operations.”

Publications

• Philip Kotler,  Robert J. Stevens and Joel Shalowitz: Strategic Marketing for Health Care Organizations. Jossey-Bass Publisher 2^ND Edition © 2021. 1^st Edition © 2008
• Shalowitz, J: The U.S. Healthcare System: Origins, Organization and Opportunities Jossey-Bass Publisher. © 2019
• Shalowitz J: Implementing Successful Quality Outcome Programs in Ambulatory Care: Key Questions and Recommendations. Journal of Ambulatory Care Management. Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 117–123, 2010.
• Emanuel L, Walton M, Hatlie M, Lau D, Shaw T, Shalowitz J and Combes J:
  The Patient Safety Education Project: An International Collaboration. In: Henriksen K, Battles JB, Keyes MA, et al., editors. Advances in Patient Safety: New Directions and Alternative Approaches (Vol. 2: Culture and Redesign). Rockville (MD): Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US); 2008 Aug.  Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK43714

Woods is a national thought leader in the fields of healthcare quality and patient safety and a leader in both quality and safety research and education. She joined Northwestern University in 2000 and is now professor of Pediatrics. She has appointments in the Center for Education in the Health Sciences and the Center for Health Services & Outcomes Research in the Institute for Public Health & Medicine. She is co-founder and director of the Northwestern Graduate Programs in Healthcare Quality & Patient Safety, the first graduate-level training program in quality and safety in the U.S. In this role, Woods developed the curriculum to provide interdisciplinary education to cohorts of physicians, nurses, pharmacists and healthcare administrators. The curriculum provides the necessary knowledge, skills and leadership capacity to develop participants into the next generation of quality and safety leaders. Her teaching has recently focused on the nature of structural racism in healthcare and its impact on equity and disparities in care and outcomes, as well as methods to address these. In addition to her foci on leadership development, human factors, risk assessment, medical teamwork and communication, she has also focused on teaching and developing curriculum on implementation science.

Woods is a member of the Academic Advisory Committee within The Graduate School at Northwestern as well as the LCME QI Committee in the Feinberg School of Medicine, which ensures high-quality education for our undergraduate medicine students.

Woods has received numerous teaching and curriculum development awards, including the Dean’s Teaching Award, The Academy for Healthcare Improvement award for Curricular Innovation and the Golden Apple Award in two separate years. She has served on the National Board of Medical Examiners - Test Materials Development Committee for Patient Safety, which is charged with developing questions for the USMLE national board exams.

Woods has been the PI on several federal- and foundation-funded studies developing and evaluating the effectiveness of evidence-based approaches and system-level care delivery interventions. In 2006, she received the Institute of Medicine’s Recognition in Patient Safety Award. She is a sought-after speaker in national meetings and was recently awarded the AcademyHealth Lifetime Achievement Award for her research.

Woods is a committed teacher and mentor, receiving excellent evaluations from her students. In addition, she gains great satisfaction from the growth and career development of her students and mentees.