Susan A. Abookire, MD, MPH, BSEE, CPHIMS Assistant Professor of Medicine, HMS Chair, Quality and Safety Mount Auburn Hospital, (2004 – present) Tel (617) 575-8603 Fax (617) 499-5593 sabookir@mah.harvard.edu

Susan Abookire, BSEE, MD, MPH, CPHIMS, is the Chair of the Department of Quality and Patient Safety at Mount Auburn Hospital, a Harvard Teaching Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dr. Abookire began her career as an electrical engineer in aviation systems designing and implementing flight management systems in the commercial aviation industry for a decade prior to her medical training. During that time, she served as design engineer for commercial aviation safety ground proximity warning systems, project manager for Boeing 757/767 flight management systems, and oversaw design of hardware and software systems as well as human factors design in cockpit warning systems.

A graduate of Harvard Medical School, Dr Abookire practiced and taught Internal Medicine full time at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital for seven years before devoting herself to leading patient safety and quality initiatives. Dr Abookire received a Masters in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health in 1998, focusing on Clinical Effectiveness and Patient Safety.

Dr Abookire has taught and lectured nationally and internationally on topics including health care technology in clinical practice, human factors, adverse event reporting systems, disclosure and apology, and applying lessons from aviation safety to healthcare. Dr. Abookire founded an elective curriculum on quality and patient safety for residents in the Department of Medicine, which is now broadening to an integrated core curriculum.