Donna M. Woods, EdM, PhD currently holds the position of Research Assistant Faculty in the Institute for Health Care Studies in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. Dr. Woods research has focused on patient safety, particularly pediatric patient safety. Her work on pediatric patient safety was selected in two consecutive years for awards for "significant and innovative" health services research. Dr Woods is a current member of the Chicago Patient Safety Forum and Co-Chair of the Chicago Pediatric Patient Safety Consortium. Dr. Woods completed a National Research Service Award Fellowship at Northwestern University 's Institute for Healthcare Studies. Dr Woods graduated with a PhD in Health and Social Policy from Brandeis University 's, Heller School as well as with a Masters in Social Policy. She also received a Masters in Clinical and Consulting Psychology from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she studied individual and organizational behavior. Prior to her doctoral work, Dr Woods was a policy practitioner focused on maternal and child health and health care quality. In the capacity of Senior Policy Advisor to the Massachusetts state Medicaid Agency she was responsible for leading the team to establish of a system of quality measurement and a program of improvement focused on low income women and children for all acute care hospitals in Massachusetts. This method was then applied to the development of measures and improvement for all chronic and rehabilitation hospitals in Massachusetts, under Dr Woods leadership. Dr Woods was also responsible for translation of current research findings regarding low birth weight into state policy and programmatic applications for low income women and children. Prior to this work Dr. Woods served as the Chair of the Massachusetts Governor's Advisory Council's, Women and Substance Abuse Task Force for seven years and presided over a period in which treatment for substance abusing women more than doubled and many new programs were established to provide detoxification and rehabilitation services to pregnant addicted women. Dr. Woods held adjunct faculty positions at the University of Massachusetts: Boston, College of Public and Community Service (1987-1991) and at the Harvard Divinity School (1988-2001).

Presentations:

PEDIATRIC PATIENT SAFETY

THE PATIENT SAFETY IN FREE CLINICS: Some things to Learn and Some things to Teach

Papers:

Learning from Errors in Ambulatory Pediatrics