Dr. Tejal K. Gandhi, Indian American president of the National Patient Safety Foundation, was recently named one of the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare by the 13th annual publication of Modern Healthcare. Gandhi, who ranked 49th in the standings, is a board certified internist, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and a certified professional in patient safety. Her research interests focus on patient safety and reducing error using information systems.
Gandhi won the 2009 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety Award for her contributions to understanding the epidemiology and possible prevention strategies for medical errors in an outpatient setting.
In July 2013, Gandhi became president of the National Patient Safety Foundation, and in November 2014, president and CEO of the Foundation. Previously, she had been chief quality and safety officer at Partners HealthCare, where she helped lead the efforts to standardize and implement patient safety best practices across the system.
Prior to that, as executive director of Quality and Safety at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for ten years, she worked to redesign systems to reduce medical errors and improve quality.
Gandhi received her MD and MPh from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health, and trained at Duke University Medical Center.