James B. Conway, MD

Governance & Leadership Expert

Jim Conway is an adjunct lecturer at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and Senior Consultant, Safe and Reliable Healthcare, Evergreen, CO. From 2006-2009 he was Senior Vice President of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and from 2005-2011, Senior Fellow. During 1995-2005, Jim was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston. Prior to joining DFCI, he had a 27-year career at Children’s Hospital, Boston in Radiology Administration, Finance, and as Assistant Hospital Director. His areas of expertise and interest include governance and executive leadership, patient safety, change management, crisis management, and patient-/ family-centered care.

He holds a Master of Science degree from Lesley College, Cambridge, MA. Jim is the winner of numerous awards including the 1999 ACHE Mass. Regents Award, the 2001 first Individual Leadership Award in Patient Safety by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and the National Committee for Quality Assurance. In 2008, he received the Picker Award for Excellence in the Advancement of Patient Centered Care, in 2009 the Mary Davis Barber Heart of Hospice Award from the Massachusetts Hospice and Palliative Care Federation, and in 2012 both the Institute for Patient and Family Centered Care Leadership Award and the first Honorary Fellowship of the National Association for Healthcare Quality.

A Lifetime Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, he has served as a Distinguished Advisor to the Lucian Leape Institute for the National Patient Safety Foundation. IOM Committees have included Identifying and Preventing Medication Errors and a Learning Healthcare System. Current Board service includes: board member, Winchester Hospital; board member American Cancer Society, New England Region; and member, Board of Visitors, University of Massachusetts, Boston. In government service, he served since 2006-2010, as a member of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Quality and Cost Council.