Speakers

Dr. Taenzer is the lead investigator for the Dartmouth Group for Patient Surveillance. This multi-specialist collaborative, consisting of nurses, physicians, IT experts, human factors and system engineers, has focused on the Failure-to-Rescue problem of in-hospital patients in general care areas by using continuous Patient Surveillance. The Dartmouth Group has reduced unexpected transfers to the intensive care unit from all surgical care areas by almost 50% and rescue events by over 60%—minimizing adverse events of patients and cost savings of several hundred ICU days per year. The Group has received the ECRI and AAMI awards and Dr. Taenzer is the 2010 recipient of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation / American Society of Anesthesiology President’s Endowed Research and the Elliscon C. Pierce Merit Award. He serves as the clinical liaison for The Dartmouth Institute for Health Care Policy and Clinical Practice on the High Value Health Collaborative work on improving sepsis outcomes.

Dr. Taenzer is also an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Pediatrics at The Geisel School of Medicine and a practicing Anesthesiologist at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.He earned his medical degree at the Medical University of Luebeck and completed a residency in Anesthesiology at Maine Health and a Pediatric Anesthesia Fellowship at Children’s Hospital Boston. He is currently the Director of the Pediatric Acute Pain Service and the Pain Free Sedation Center at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. His research is focused on safety and quality in pediatric and adult patients.