Peter Pronovost’s Seemingly Simple Ideas Are Changing the Face of Patient Care

Peter Pronovost, M.D., Ph.D.

Johns Hopkins critical care specialist Peter Pronovost, who champions scientifically rigorous yet common-sense approaches to eliminating medical errors and complications, has been named a 2008 winner of a MacArthur Fellowship, the so-called “genius grant.”

The award from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation recognizes recipients for their creativity, originality and potential to make important contributions in the future.

For his work developing simple tools that greatly improve patient safety and care, Pronovost was named one of the “most influential people of 2008” by Time magazine.

He is perhaps best known for creating a simple checklist of basic steps, such as hand washing and proper skin preparation, that has helped physicians and nurses dramatically reduce many kinds of hospital infections.

Pronovost, as medical director for Johns Hopkins’ Center for Innovation in Quality Patient Care and director of the Hopkins Quality and Safety Research Group, is part of an institutional effort that has made Hopkins a world leader in the science and innovation behind patient safety.

This is the second straight year in which a Johns Hopkins physician has been awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. Lisa Cooper, an internist hailed for her research into health care disparities, received the fellowship in 2007.