Allen Kachalia

Allen Kachalia is a member of the faculty at the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School.  He is clinically active as an academic hospitalist at Brigham & Women’s Hospital, regularly teaching and attending on the hospital wards with medical students and residents.  He is also a member of the BWH leadership team as the Associate Chief Quality Officer for the hospital, with his administrative activities focusing on the quality and safety of patient care in both the inpatient and outpatient settings.

Allen also has a law degree, and teaches and maintains research interest in legal issues in medicine, including malpractice system reform and disclosure, and how they relate to the quality and safety of medical care.

• Associate Chief Quality Officer
• Co-director, Center for Clinical Excellence
• Academic Hospitalist, BWH Hospitalist Service

• Law and Clinical Medicine

• 1999-2002, Internal Medicine Residency, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
• 2002-2003, Chief Medical Resident, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
• 2005, Clinical Effectiveness Program, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
• 2009, Brigham Leadership Program, Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts

• BS, 1993, Biochemistry and Business Economics, UCLA, Los Angeles, California
• MD, 1999, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri
• JD, 1999, University of Pennsylvania Law School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Kachalia A, Mello MM. New directions in medical liability reform. N Engl J Med 2011;364:  1564-72.

Szent-Gyorgyi LE, Coblyn J, Turchin A, Loscalzo J, Kachalia A. Building a departmental quality program: a patient-based and provider-led approach. Acad Med 2011;86:314-20.

Kachalia A, Kaufman SR, Boothman R, Anderson S, Welch K, Saint S, Rogers, MAM. Liability claims and costs before and after implementation of a medical error disclosure program. Ann Intern Med 2010;153:213-221.

Poon EG, Keohane CA, Yoon CS, Ditmore M, Bane A, Levtzion-Korach O, Moniz T, Rothschild JM, Kachalia A, Hayes J, Churchill WW, Lipsitz S, Whittemore AD, Bates DW, Gandhi TK. Effect of bar-code technology on the safety of medication administration. N Engl J Med 2010;362:1698-707.

Kachalia A, Mello MM, Brennan TA, Studdert DM. Beyond negligence: avoidability and medical injury compensation.  Soc Sci Med 2008;66:387-402.

Kachalia A, Gandhi TK, Puopolo AL, Yoon C, Thomas EJ, Griffey R, Brennan TA, Studdert DM. Missed and delayed diagnoses in the emergency department: a study of closed malpractice claims from four liability insurers. Ann Emerg Med 2007;49:196-205.

Gandhi TK, Kachalia A, Thomas EJ, Puopolo AL, Yoon C, Brennan TA, Studdert DM. Missed and delayed diagnoses in the ambulatory setting: a study of closed malpractice claims. Ann Intern Med 2006;145:488-96.

Studdert DM, Mello MM, Gawande AA, Gandhi TK, Kachalia A, Yoon C, Puopolo AL, Brennan TA. Claims, errors, and compensation payments in medical malpractice litigation. N Engl J Med 2006;354:2024-33.

Kachalia A, Johnson JK, Miller S, Brennan T. The incorporation of patient safety into board certification examinations. Acad Med 2006;81:317-25.

Kachalia A, Studdert DM. Professional liability issues in graduate medical education. JAMA  2004;292:1051-6.