(OAK BROOK, Ill.-November 15, 2007) Joint Commission Resources (JCR) today announced the appointment of three individuals to serve as new members of its Board of Directors. Ahmed Mubarak Ali Al Mazrouei, M.D., and John Øvretveit, Ph.D. will fill International Director seats on the Board, while John E. McDonough, Dr.P.H. will occupy a Domestic Director seat. JCR is a not-for-profit affiliate of The Joint Commission. All of these appointments are effective January 1, 2008.
Ahmed Mubarak Ali Al Mazrouei, M.D., is Chairman of the General Authority for Health Services (GAHS) in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE). In this role, he serves as the minister of health for UAE's 2.8 million people. His responsibilities include direction of GAHS efforts to establish health care standards, oversight of hospitals and clinic operations, promotion of public awareness of health care issues, and planning for future health care needs in Abu Dhabi. He has chaired both the Middle East and North Africa Regional Advisory Council of JCR'S affiliate Joint Commission International and the Abu Dhabi Health Insurance Founders Committee, which developed the UAE's first health insurance program.
John E. McDonough, Dr.P.H., is Executive Director of Health Care for All, the leading consumer health advocacy organization in Massachusetts. Prior to joining Health Care for All in 2003, McDonough was an associate professor at the Heller School of Brandeis University and a senior associate at its Schneider Institute for Health Policy. McDonough previously served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives where he co-chaired the Joint Committee on Health Care and led the successful campaign for passage of health access legislation to cover uninsured children. This legislation subsequently served as a model for the federal Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). He currently teaches at the Harvard School of Public Health. He has written two books, and his articles have appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine, Health Affairs and other journals.
John Øvretveit, Ph.D., is Director of Research at the Medical Management Centre at The
Karolinska Institute in Stockholm in Sweden and a professor of health policy and management at Bergen University Medical School in Norway. His work focuses on organization design that facilitates effectiveness in health care. Dr. Øvretveit has extensive experience in the areas of health service quality, health management, organization evaluation, inter-professional cooperation and health reform. He has published more than 200 scientific papers and books and has participated in projects in Yemen, Indonesia, Thailand, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, the United States, African and Scandinavian countries, and the Baltic countries.
"The tremendous knowledge and experience of these three individuals in health care and health care quality will be a major asset in JCR's ongoing efforts to make expert resources available to health care organizations around the world who share our commitment to improving the quality and safety of care for patients everywhere," says Karen H. Timmons, president and CEO, JCR.