Charles R. Denham, MD

Bio Sketch   Video   Published Articles

• Background: Dr. Denham's business development career, spanning 20 years, has resulted in numerous product and process innovations. He was ranked 31st in Modern Healthcare's 2006 list of the "50 Most Powerful Physician Executives," and is a collaborator with the World Health Organization. As a radiation oncologist, professor of biomedical engineering, and instructor at a number of medical schools and business schools, he has taught innovation adoption, technology transfer, and commercialization. He has served on numerous editorial boards of journals as a Health Information Technology (HIT) and solution specialist, authored more than 100 publications, and is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Patient Safety. He is an adjunct professor at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Health Systems Engineering. He is a 2011 Senior Fellow of the Harvard University Advanced Leadership Initiative, a teaching faculty member of the Harvard School of Public Health, and in the President's Circle of the National Academies of Science advising the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Science, and the National Academy of Engineering. He is a co-founder of the Global Patient Safety Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, a convener of healthcare leaders around the world.


• CEO and Founder, HCC Corporation: A business development accelerator, HCC has led, developed, or supported 400 product development teams in more than 50 product categories, including pharmaceuticals, devices, capital equipment, and Health Information Technologies. Its mission is to save lives, save money, and create value in the communities and ventures it builds. HCC developed an evidence-based Breakthrough Technology Processing System now used for product contracting by one-third of U.S. hospitals purchasing more than $30 billion in products. HCC methods are used by global healthcare supplier and high-technology companies with more than $250 billion in revenues and more than 95% U.S. hospital market penetration. HCC accelerates market penetration of solutions that are evidence-based and patient-centered, and that target systems performance improvement. The HCC accelerator incubates ventures spanning partnerships with global 10 companies to a portfolio of companies that HCC has spawned itself. The core values of HCC are integrity, compassion, accountability, reliability, and entrepreneurship (ICARE). HCC is driven to exemplify these behaviors as a servant leader, and to serve as a silent partner of healthcare innovators.


• Chairman and Founder, TMIT: A non-profit medical research organization dedicated to driving adoption of clinical solutions for healthcare performance improvement, TMIT has established a National Research Test Bed of more than 3,100 hospitals – the world's largest virtual laboratory. The mission is identical to that of HCC. TMIT R&D accelerates the adoption of high-impact performance improvement solutions, products, services, and technologies. It is served by more than 500 clinical and administrative subject matter experts from a number of our nation's best academic and front-line institutions. The numerous task forces and practicing communities of TMIT are served by online knowledge management systems. An example may be found at www.SafetyLeaders.org. TMIT has established national, state, and local collaborative Pay-for-Performance programs. TMIT has task forces with federal agencies, certifying, and quality organizations, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), The Joint Commission (TJC), the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), The Leapfrog Group, and the National Quality Forum (NQF). Research and collaborative support has been provided to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), NASA, and the Department of Defense. TMIT produced the documentary Chasing Zero: Winning the War on Healthcare Harm, released in 2010 on the Discovery Channel. During 2011, TMIT multi-institutional studies of financial impact calculators, greatness in leadership, and technology adoption will be published in peer-reviewed medical journals, on multimedia channels, and in documentaries. Success will be measured in lives saved, money saved, and value to communities served.


• Co-Chairman, NQF Safe Practices Consensus Standards Maintenance Committee: Dr. Denham leads a continuous development program that defines the National Quality Forum (NQF) Safe Practices for Better Healthcare, which are federal standards applied to all U.S. hospitals and most healthcare organizations. The 2010 practices were endorsed as national standards and released in April 2010. The National Quality Forum is a public-private partnership charged by the U.S. Congress to establish standards under the auspices of the Innovation Transfer Act of 1995. Responsible for updating the NQF Safe Practices on an ongoing multi-year basis, Dr. Denham and TMIT have established a National Harmonization Program with each of The Joint Commission, CMS, AHRQ, IHI, and The Leapfrog Group in order to generate a synchronized set of practices that will provide a common roadmap to hospitals. TMIT has also funded a national Healthcare-Associated Infection project in collaboration with NQF which will establish consensus standards for hospital reporting and data systems in 2011 and beyond. Dr. Denham has also been a co-chairman of the NQF Laboratory Consensus Standards program.


• Chairman, Safe Practices Program of The Leapfrog Group: The Leapfrog Group is a consortium of more than 185 Fortune 500 companies with more than $69 billion in healthcare purchasing power, responsible for more than 34 million covered lives. TMIT funds and leads design and support of elements of the largest Pay-for-Performance program in the country. It ranks U.S. hospitals on an annual basis, providing the mechanism for consumers and insurance purchasers to reward quality improvement by their purchasing. Dr. Denham has chaired its Safe Practices program since 2004. This harmonization effort provides a common set of transparency measures and targets that the payers can build into their purchasing programs. Hospitals representing more than 40% of U.S. healthcare participate in the program.


• Selected Publications: To review a selected list of recent articles that may be downloaded, go to Dr. Charles Denham's published articles; and to learn more about TMIT, please go to http://www.SafetyLeaders.org.