Robert Wachter, MD

“It is clear that the great hospital of the future will need to truly demonstrate that it achieves better outcomes for patients, and that will require new kinds of thinking, teaching, teamwork and technology. “

Robert Wachter, MD, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, where he directs the Division of Hospital Medicine. A practicing internist, he is also the Holly Smith Distinguished Professor in Science and Medicine and the Benioff Endowed Chair in Hospital Medicine.

He coined the term “hospitalist” for physicians who specialize in the care of hospitalized patients and is credited as the founder and academic leader of the hospitalist speciality in medicine, the fastest-growing speciality in U.S. medical history.

In 2015, Dr. Wachter was named the most influential physician-executive in the U.S. by Modern Healthcare. In addition to being a frequent contributor to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, he is the author of 250 articles and 6 books on healthcare technology and patient safety, including The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype, and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine’s Computer Age; Internal Bleeding; and Understanding Patient Safety, the world’s top-selling safety primer. His honors include the John M. Eisenberg Award, the nation’s top honor in patient safety.

Dr. Wachter is the former President of the Society of Hospital Medicine and Chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine. He previously led the production of the leading federal patient safety website, AHRQ Patient Safety Network (PSNet), a patient safety journal and major online safety library and portal reaching 1.5 million people per year.

He obtained his B.A. in political science and biology and M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania before completing his residency in internal medicine and serving as chief resident at UCSF.