Helen Haskell is president of the US nonprofit patient organizations Mothers Against Medical Error and Consumers Advancing Patient Safety. She is an Institute for Healthcare Improvement senior fellow and a board member of the Patient Safety Action Network and the International Society for Rapid Response Systems. She is a recently retired board member of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and a previous chair of the WHO Patients for Patient Safety Advisory Group and the Patient Engagement Committee of the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine. She works with the World Health Organization on patient safety and patient engagement and with SIDM, AHRQ and others on diagnostic issues. Helen’s goal since the medical error death of her young son Lewis has been to enhance the patient contribution to safety and quality in healthcare. She has written or co-authored dozens of articles, book chapters, and educational materials on patient engagement in safety, quality, and diagnosis, including a co-edited textbook of case studies from the patient perspective. Her son Lewis’s story has been featured in educational programs and videos including Transparent Health’s full-length Lewis Blackman Story. Helen holds a bachelor’s degree in Classical Studies from Duke University and a master’s degree in Anthropology from Rice University in the United States.
To read Questions and Answers with the Chair, WPA Patient Safety and Quality Council featured by WPA Newsletter Patients’ Voice, please click Meet Helen Haskell."