Eugene Litvak, PhD
Brad Prenney, MS, MPA
Kathleen Kerwin Fuda, PhD
Michael C. Long, MD
YooMee Lee, MPH
Marilyn Rudolph, RN, BSN, MBA
Frederick C. Ryckman, MD
Michael McManus, MD
Clinical Consultants
Eugene Litvak, PhD is a co-founder and director of the Program for the Management of Variability in Health Care Delivery at the Boston University Health Policy Institute. He is also is a Professor at the Boston University School of Management. He received his doctorate in Operations Research from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1977. Prior to joining Boston University he was a faculty member at the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis in the Department of Health Policy & Management at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), where he still teaches the course “Operations Management in Service Delivery Organizations” as an Adjunct Professor. Dr. Litvak arrived in the U.S. in 1988, and joined HSPH in 1990.
Prior to that time he was a chief of the Operations Management Group at the Computing Center in Kiev, Ukraine. His research interests include operations management in health care delivery organizations, cost-effective medical decision-making, screening for HIV and other infectious diseases, and operations research. Professor Litvak is an author of more than 50 publications in these areas. He was the leading author of the new cost-effective protocols in screening for HIV and hepatitis, which reduce the cost of screening by a factor of 5 to 10 while simultaneously reducing errors by a factor of 20 to 40. These protocols have been positively evaluated by FDA, NIH and CDC, and currently are the subject of a large-scale international trial supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development as well as Chiron and Roche pharmaceutical companies.
Dr. Litvak serves as a Principal Investigator from the U.S. for this trial. Since 1995 he leads the development and practical applications of innovative variability methodology for cost reduction and quality improvement in health care delivery systems. Professor Litvak was the Principal Investigator in the recent "Emergency Room Diversion Study" supported by the grant from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee “The Future of Emergency Care in the United States Health System“. He is also Principal Investigator in many hospital operations improvement studies. Dr. Litvak frequently presents as an invited lecturer at the multiple national and international meetings. He also serves as a consultant on operations improvement to several major hospitals and is a senior faculty of the Institute for Health Care Improvement.
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Brad Prenney, MS, MPA is Deputy Director of the MVP. He is involved in managing and directing the full range of Program activities, including consulting engagements, grants, research, policy development and education/training. He joined the MVP in 2004 after having spent twenty years with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health where he directed the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, oversaw Emergency Medical Services and coordinated the Department’s efforts at addressing ED overcrowding and ambulance diversion. He coordinated the passage and implementation of three sets of amendments to the state’s EMS and Lead Poisoning Prevention laws and has extensive experience and accomplishments in the development of new technologies to address public health problems, in establishing training and education programs, public policy development and in the administration of grants and contracts. He has a Masters degree in Epidemiology from the University of Massachusetts School of Public Health and a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
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Kathleen Kerwin Fuda, PhD
has 24 years experience working in health care policy, health care data policy, and health services research. Currently she is Data Analysis Manager of the Program for Management of Variability in Health Care Delivery, where Kathy manages data collection, analysis, and reporting operations for the Program’s consulting and research activities. She speaks regularly at national and state-level academic, provider, and government-sponsored meetings and conferences about the use of variability methodology and operations management in health care settings, the impacts of poor scheduling practices at hospitals, particularly those concerning nurses, and emergency department utilization and policy issues. She has served as an expert reviewer for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, and as an advisor to AHRQ’s effort to develop a research agenda concerning emergency medical services. She also served as an expert reviewer in an AHRQ-sponsored project to develop measures for emergency department operations. She has published articles and reports in peer-reviewed journals, books, and other formats, most recently the first statewide study of all frequent users of emergency departments, which appeared in Annals of Emergency Medicine (July 2006).
Previously Dr. Fuda was Manager of Data Initiatives and Analysis at the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy. She led a successful campaign there to develop a statewide emergency department database, and created the first dataset in the nation to capture all visits to emergency departments regardless of disposition. She went on to manage analyses of that database and others collected by the Division. From 1990 to 1998, she was senior health policy analyst at Fresenius Medical Care, a global provider of dialysis and diagnostic testing services and products. She was responsible for health policy and government relations for that firm’s clinical laboratory, diagnostic testing, and homecare divisions. In 1983, she co-founded a statewide consumer-led organization to improve access to maternity care services in Massachusetts, and served on its Board of Directors for 10 years. She has also held a number of research and teaching positions. Kathy earned her Ph.D. at Boston University.
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Michael C. Long, MD graduated in 1965 from MIT with honors in Life Sciences and from Harvard Medical School with honors in 1969. After an internship in Surgery at the University of Colorado Medical Center and residency in Anesthesiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Long was Chief of Anesthesia at US Kirk Army hospital during the Vietnam conflict. He returned to the MGH in 1974 and was on staff in the Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care for more than 27 years. He served the MGH in a number of key clinical and administrative positions within the Anesthesiology department and Operating Room administration. From 1995 to 2001, he served as Chairman of Operations Improvement for the Operating Services and from 1997 to 2001 as Deputy Director of Operating Services for Operations Improvement and Information Systems. He was instrumental in designing and implementing a new state-of-the-art OR scheduling and information system at the MGH.
Since 1995, Dr. Long has collaborated with Dr. Eugene Litvak in the development and practical application of innovative methodologies for cost reduction and quality improvement in health care delivery systems. This methodology has been described in their publication "Cost and Quality Under Managed Care: Irreconcilable Differences?" in the American Journal of Managed Care 2000; v.6, No.3, pp.305-312. Application of this methodology in numerous hospitals has resulted in improvements in patient flow and access to care in the Operating Rooms, Emergency Department, Intensive Care Units and other inpatient care areas. In 2001, Dr Long and Dr Litvak founded the Program for the Management of Variability in Health Care Delivery at the Boston University Health Policy Institute. Dr Long currently continues his participation as an integral team member of the Program.
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YooMee Lee, MPH is a Data Analyst for the MVP. She is involved in several of the Program’s research and consulting projects to improve operations in hospitals and other health care delivery settings. While pursuing her MPH at Dartmouth, YooMee was involved in analyzing and improving patient access to care at Dartmouth Medical Center. She earned her B.S. at University of Illinois at Chicago.
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Marilyn Rudolph, RN, BSN, MBA, serves as Vice President, Performance Improvement for VHA Pennsylvania, Inc. In this role, she supports organizations in their efforts to improve healthcare quality, and clinical and operational performance in wide variety of healthcare initiatives. Prior to joining VHA, Ms. Rudolph was Director of the Outpatient Surgery and Endoscopy Departments at Sewickley Valley Hospital, Sewickley, Pennsylvania. In addition to her leadership and performance improvement roles, her clinical background includes over 20 years as a registered nurse with focus on ambulatory, emergency, critical care, and perioperative nursing.
Ms. Rudolph led hospital efforts to improve preioperative patient flow to achieve a 90% improvement in on-time case starts and surgical case cancellation rate of <1% while streamlining multiple perioperative processes. She serves as faculty for the Institute of Healthcare Improvement Flow Innovation Community, and in addition to her expertise in patient flow, Ms. Rudolph has supported multiple organizations in their efforts to reduce costs and improve patient throughput and clinical outcomes.
She has delivered numerous presentations and workshops on clinical and operational improvement at the national, state and local levels. Additionally, she has co-authored several articles for national healthcare journals related to healthcare and perioperative improvement. Ms. Rudolph serves as faculty for Waynesburg University, Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, and has served as adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Ms. Rudolph received a BSN from Slippery Rock University and MBA from Point Park University
Frederick C. Ryckman, M.D. graduated from Michigan State University in Biology/Zoology and from the University of Michigan Medical School with high honors in 1973. He completed his General Surgery Residency at the University of Florida in1982 and thereafter a fellowship in Pediatric Surgery at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. He has remained a practicing surgeon at the University of Cincinnati / Cincinnati Children’s Hospital since 1984, where he is presently a Professor of Surgery. He has been the Surgical Director of solid organ transplantation leading the liver, small intestine, and multi-visceral transplant services since 1985. His other practice interests include long-term heart/lung bypass (ECMO) and hepatobiliary surgery in infants and children. He is the Clinical Director of the Pediatric Surgery Department and Director of the Pediatric Surgical Fellowship program
Dr. Ryckman’s interest in OR management led to collaboration with the Program for the Management of Variability in Health Care Delivery to re-engineer flow management in the Operating Room at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Application of this methodology led to substantial improvements in access, utilization and safety. Ongoing efforts include use of these principals to enhance hospital wide flow initiatives using the management techniques emphasized by Dr. Eugene Litvak’s work.
Michael McManus, MD, MPH is Senior Associate in Medicine, Anesthesia and Critical Care at Children's Hospital in Boston, Chief of Pediatrics at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, and Associate Professor of Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School. As an adjunct Associate Professor of Operations Management at Boston University, he has served as a core faculty member in the MVP since its inception. He earned both his undergraduate and medical degrees from Northwestern University.
After completing his training in pediatrics at the Children's Hospital in Boston, he pursued a second residency in anesthesiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and then returned to Boston Children's to complete fellowship training in pediatric anesthesia and critical care. He joined the faculty in the intensive care unit at Children's in 1989 and is board certified in Pediatrics, Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine.
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Clinical Consultants - The MVP is able to draw upon the services and expertise of a number of health care clinicians and administrators to provide expert consultation and technical assistance in the areas of consultative services, education, research and policy development. These consultants have expertise in a range of clinical specialties, administrative roles and all have direct experience in addressing patient flow problems in various health care settings.
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