Dr. Allan Frankel

Co-Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Frankel is a Principal at Pascal Metrics Inc. and co-leads its Clinical Group with Dr. Michael Leonard.

Dr. Frankel and Dr. Leonard have trained over 1,000 patient safety officers worldwide and regularly are called upon to provide patient safety and quality guidance, from the bedside to the boardroom. Dr. Frankel has advised senior clinical and executive leaders as well as led clinical intervention and training in hospitals and healthcare systems in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

From 2000 to 2007 Dr. Frankel was the Director of Patient Safety for the 44,000-employee Partners Healthcare System, the premier Boston-based integrated delivery system comprised of major Harvard teaching hospitals including the Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The position was one of the first of its kind in the USA. He continues on as faculty at the Brigham and Women’s Patient Safety Center of Excellence where he conducts research on team training and leadership engagement in healthcare.

Dr. Frankel is a senior faculty member at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and regularly is called upon to advise and collaborate with clinical and policy organizations in healthcare such as the Institute of Medicine and other leading bodies.

Since 1998, Dr. Frankel has co-chaired a host of IHI collaboratives. He co-created and teaches in the IHI Patient Safety College, an eight-day intensive course for Patient Safety Officers and hospital leaders. He is a lead faculty member for IHI patient safety programs across the United Kingdom, including Scotland, and invented and pioneered Leadership WalkRounds, now used by thousands of hospitals internationally.

Dr. Frankel has published on techniques of performing observation in clinical environments to evaluate team behaviors, attitude and threats to safe operations and care delivery. He has published numerous articles in a wide variety of patient safety areas and three books, mostly recently the Joint Commission-published The Essential Guide for Patient Safety Officers, which Dr. Leonard and Dr. Frankel co-edited and for which they contributed.

Dr. Frankel trained in pediatric anesthesia at Boston Children’s Hospital and cardiac anesthesia at Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital. He practiced anesthesia in an academic setting for ten years and private practice for 14 years.