Donald Berwick

Who is Donald Berwick?

Donald M. Berwick is a former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Prior to his work in the administration, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement a not-for-profit organization helping to lead the improvement of health care throughout the world. On July 7, 2010, Barack Obama appointed Berwick to serve as the Administrator of CMS through a recess appointment. On December 2, 2011, he resigned because of heavy Republican opposition to his appointment and his potential inability to win a confirmation vote. On June 18, 2013, Berwick declared his candidacy for governor of Massachusetts.

Berwick has studied the management of health care systems, with emphasis on using scientific methods and evidence-based medicine and comparative effectiveness research to improve the tradeoff among quality, safety and costs. Among IHI's projects are online courses for health care professionals for reducing Clostridium difficile infections, lowering the number of heart failure readmissions or managing advanced disease and palliative care. In March 2012 he joined the Center for American Progress as a Senior Fellow.