2017 Innovations in Clinical Care Award–Pamela Johnson, M.D., Lenny Feldman, M.D., & Amit Pahwa, M.D
Background
Dr. Pamela T. Johnson, FACR is the Sheldon B. Bearman, M.D. Endowed Professor in the Johns Hopkins Medicine Department of Radiology, where she is Vice Chair of Quality, Safety and Value and holds joint appointments in Oncology and Urology. Her area of clinical expertise is Body CT and her radiology research interests include protocol design to optimize multidetector row CT image quality, interpretative performance improvement to increase longitudinal health care clinical and cost-effectiveness.
A passionate advocate for patient-center, high value health care, Pamela also serves as the vice president of care transformation for the Johns Hopkins Health System. In this role, she builds on the success of our existing provider-led initiatives to improve the efficacy, consistency and efficiency of care delivery by engaging multidisciplinary front line clinical teams in care redesign. The health system care transformation mission is aligned with multiple arms of the Johns Hopkins Medicine Innovation 2023 strategic plan: Aim for Precision in Everything We do, Improve the Quality and Affordability of Health Care, Make Hopkins Easy and Work Like One Organization. This work has been recognized through the Johns Hopkins Hospital 2017 and 2022 Innovations in Clinical Care awards and the Society of Hospital Medicine 2018 Excellence in Quality Improvement Teamwork award. In 2019, the Center for Innovative Medicine selected Pamela as the Stanley Levenson Scholar with a 5 year grant to support the high value initiative, and in 2023, she was named one of Becker's Healthcare Chief Transformation Officers to Know.
In 2019, Pamela established the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine as one of 22 provider-led entities in the US approved by CMS to write appropriate use criteria (AUC) for the Protecting Access to Medicare Act advanced imaging regulation. Pamela orchestrated large teams of clinicians to design evidence-based diagnostic guidelines in the electronic medical record that optimize patient outcomes and resource utilization, while fulfilling CMS’ requirements for advanced imaging clinical decision support.
Nationally, she is the founder and co-director of the High Value Practice Academic Alliance (www.hvpaa.org), a consortium of academic medical centers collaborating on high value care quality improvement, research and education. Dr. Johnson is the former chair of the American College of Radiology Choosing Wisely® Committee and a current member of the Radiological Society of North America Committee on Government Relations.
Dr. Johnson graduated Cum Laude from Harvard University in 1987 and earned her medical degree as a member of AOA from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA in 1991. She completed her residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she was elected Chief Resident and performed a fellowship in ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), and magnetic image resonance imaging (MRI) at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. In 2019, she became a fellow of the American College of Radiology.
Patient Ratings & Comments
The Patient Rating score is an average of all responses to physician related questions on the national CG-CAHPS Medical Practice patient experience survey through Press Ganey. Responses are measured on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best score. Comments are also gathered from our CG-CAHPS Medical Practice Survey through Press Ganey and displayed in their entirety. Patients are de-identified for confidentiality and patient privacy.