David Bates, M.D., named Brigham and Women’s Chief Innovation Officer

David Bates, M.D., has moved from the chief quality officer position to the newly created chief innovation officer job at Boston’s Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), a 793-bed nonprofit teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School and a founding member of Partners Healthcare.

Bates, who previously served as the chief quality officer at BWH, is charged with translating inventions, discoveries and new ideas into services and products that benefit patients and improve the delivery of care. He will also serve as executive sponsor of the Brigham Innovation Hub, a catalyst of innovation across the hospital.

Bates, an expert on patient safety, has been active in federal advisory committees on health IT. He is a member of the Health IT Policy Committee and chaired the FDASIA Work Group.

He will continue in his role as chief of the Division of General Medicine and Primary Care at BWH.  He is also a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a professor of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health, where he co-directs the Program in Clinical Effectiveness.  He also serves as medical director of Clinical and Quality Analysis for Partners Healthcare.  He directs the Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice at BWH and serves as external program lead for research in the World Health Organization's Global Alliance for Patient Safety.  He is the editor of the Journal of Patient Safety.