Matthew Germak, MD, MPH Named Vice President of Patient Safety at CRICO

BOSTON, MA, July 8, 2024—Matthew Germak, MD, MPH will be the new Vice President for Patient Safety at CRICO, the Medical Professional Liability insurance program serving the Harvard medical community and its affiliate organizations. He will assume this role beginning July 15, 2024.

As Vice President, Dr. Germak will report to Luke Sato, MD, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of CRICO. In this capacity, he will have oversight of strategic and operational patient safety solutions for all CRICO subscribers. His responsibilities will include advancing CRICO’s patient safety strategy, convening clinical leaders, overseeing protected discussions of the AMC PSO, designing CRICO’s educational programs, and supporting advanced clinical data analytics.

“Matt is a respected leader in patient safety and highly regarded by our insured network. I expect him to bring a fresh perspective and insight to our team, allowing us to better address the quality and safety challenges faced by our community,” says Mark E. Reynolds, CRICO President and CEO.

Dr. Germak joins CRICO with extensive experience in patient safety. For the last four years, he has been Beth Israel Lahey Health Primary Care’s (BILHPC) first Chief Quality and Safety Officer and has been a primary care physician for eight years at BILHPC – Wellesley Family Medicine. Matt also currently serves as BILH’s principal investigator in CRICO’s Ambulatory Safety Net Program.

Dr. Germak stepped into a leadership role when establishing the Quality and Safety Department at BILHPC, leading a team in safety risk, quality improvement, patient experience, and patient relations. He was also integral to forming the BILHPC Patient and Family Advisory Council and Chairs the BILH Ambulatory Patient Experience Steering Committee and the BILH Ambulatory Patient Safety Subcommittee. Based on this experience, Dr. Germak uniquely appreciates the perspective of providers, institutions, and patients.

“We are thrilled to have Matt join us as VP of Patient Safety, as he’s been working with CRICO as our Medical Director of Primary Care since 2022,” says Dr. Sato. “The combination of his experience as a clinician and achievements in health care quality and safety make him a perfect fit for our organization and our subscribers.”

Dr. Germak attended the University of Michigan for his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Berklee College of Music for graduate studies before receiving his MD from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He was also a graduate of CRICO and Harvard Medical School’s Fellowship in Patient Safety and Quality and received his MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

About CRICO

For close to 50 years, CRICO has served the clinicians, institutions, and employees of the Harvard medical institutions and their affiliates with a superior medical professional liability program. It is our mission to protect providers and promote safety: safeguarding the assets and reputations of our insured organizations and the people they employ through vigorous yet fair malpractice defense strategies, working closely with organizational leaders and physicians to provide insured-clinicians the support they need in the aftermath of an adverse event, as well as facilitating cross-organizational convening to encourage broad adoption of proven patient safety practices. To learn more visit www.rmf.harvard.edu.