Building a Culture of Patient Safety through Simulation

Kathleen Gallo, PhD, MBA, RN, is Senior Vice President and Chief Learning Officer for the North Shore-LIJ Health System. Under her leadership, the Center for Learning and Innovation-North Shore-LIJ's corporate university-and the Patient Safety Institute were created to transform the health system into a learning organization by focusing on workforce development. Dr. Gallo is responsible for leadership development throughout the organization, creating and implementing a comprehensive learning strategy, and developing a new human resources architecture that transformed it into a strategic business partner. Dr. Gallo serves on the advisory boards for the Executive Program in Work-based Learning Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, and the IHI Open School for Health Professions. She chairs the Quality Committee for the Council for Accreditation, Society for Simulation in Healthcare, and serves on the editorial board of the Journal for Applied Nursing Research. Dr. Gallo is Associate Professor of science education, Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine and Associate Adjunct Professor, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University. She was an examiner for the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award Program from 2003-2005 and served on the advisory board for the National Center for Healthcare Leadership from 2004-2010. She has held several regional posts for emergency medical services and emergency nursing. Dr. Gallo is a board member of the American Nurses Foundation Board of Trustees and was inducted as a Fellow into the American Academy of Nursing in 2011. Larry Smith, MD, is Executive Vice President and Physician-in-Chief, North Shore-LIJ Health System, and Dean, Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine. As physician-in-chief, Dr. Smith is the health system's senior physician on all clinical issues. He previously served as North Shore-LIJ's chief medical officer. Other previous positions include Dean, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, NYC, and Chair of Medical Education, founder and director of the school's Institute for Medical Education, Professor of Medicine and attending physician. He joined the faculty of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1994 as Vice Chairman of the Department of Medicine and Residency Program Director. Dr. Smith has held senior leadership positions in national societies for medical education and residency training, authored numerous peer-reviewed publications in medical education, and has received many awards and honors from national and international organizations. He is a member-at-large of the National Board of Medical Examiners and a member of the Board of Visitors of Fordham College. He is also a former regent of the American College of Physicians and former member of the board of directors of the American Board of Internal Medicine. In April 2011, Dr. Smith was elected to the American College of Physicians, USA.