David Classen, MD, MS

David C. Classen, MD, MS  is a  Professor of Medicine at the University of Utah and a Consultant in Infectious Diseases at The University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City, Utah. Dr Classen is also the CMIO at Pascal Metrics, a Patient Safety Organization (PSO).

He received his medical degree from the University Of Virginia School Of Medicine and a Masters of Science degree in medical informatics from the University Of Utah School Of Medicine.  He served as Chief Medical Resident at the University of Connecticut. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases.  He developed the medication safety programs at Intermountain Healthcare; He was the chair of Intermountain Health Cares Clinical Quality Committee for Drug Use and Evaluation and was also the initial developer of patient safety research and patient safety programs at Intermountain Healthcare.  In addition he developed, implemented and evaluated a computerized physician order entry program at LDS Hospital that significantly improved the safety of medication use.

He was a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee  (IOM) that developed the National Healthcare Quality Report and he was also a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Patient Safety Data Standards.  He was recently a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Health Information Technology and Patient Safety.

He chaired the QUIC (Federal Safety Taskforce)/IHI Collaborative on Improving Safety in High Hazard Areas. Dr Classen was Co Chair of the Institute of Healthcare Improvements Collaborative on Perioperative Safety and the Surgical Safety Collaborative at the Institute of Healthcare Improvement (IHI). He was also a faculty member of the IHI/National Health Foundation Safer Patients Initiative in the United Kingdom. In addition Dr Classen is one of the developers of the “Trigger Tool Methodology” at IHI, used for the improved detection of adverse events which is currently being used by more than 500 different healthcare organizations through out the Unites States and Europe.

He currently co chairs the National Quality Forum’s AHRQ Common Formats Committee and Dr. Classen is an advisor to the Leapfrog Group and has developed and implemented the CPOE/EHR flight simulator for AHRQ and National Quality Forum. This Electronic Health Record (EHR) Flight simulator has been used to evaluate hundreds of inpatient and ambulatory EHR systems after implementation across the United States and The United Kingdom and is a critical part of the National Quality Forum’s Safe Practice #16 for Computerized Provider Order Entry within EHRs

Updated December 2019