About Us

Leadership & Key Staff

Leadership

Marcia Petrillo, MA
Chief Executive Officer
Ms. Petrillo is the chief executive officer of Qualidigm, the Connecticut-based Quality Improvement Organization and designated Patient Safety Organization.  She has 30 years of experience in creating innovative and practical solutions to meet the challenges of our health care system. Prior to joining Qualidigm she was executive director of the Hartford County Peer Standards Review Organization and the Hartford County Health Care Plan, a unique all-payor utilization review program in Connecticut. Ms. Petrillo is a recognized leader in the design and implementation of quality improvement initiatives on a national level. She was project director of a national initiative to develop quality measures to improve care provided to patients with acute myocardial infarction, pneumonia and pressure ulcers; and she led the statewide public reporting project that established a unique approach to presenting quality information for hospital, nursing home, home health and physician office settings. Ms. Petrillo serves on numerous local and national advisory committees and boards, including eHealth Connecticut, the Rhode Island Quality Institute and the American Health Quality Association. She is the recipient of the James Q. Cannon Distinguished Executive Leader Award in Health Care Quality Improvement in national recognition of her leadership achievements. She and her colleagues have also published and presented extensively on quality improvement topics. Ms. Petrillo holds a master's degree from Boston College.

Maxine Goldsmith, RN, BSN, MBA
Chief Operations Officer
Ms. Goldsmith is the chief operations officer of Qualidigm, the Connecticut-based Quality Improvement Organization and designated Patient Safety Organization. She joined Qualidigm in 2002 and brings over 25 years of experience in health care clinical practice and operations. Ms. Goldsmith has worked with clinicians, executives, information technology professionals and subject matter experts in managed care, outpatient and hospital settings. Her expertise includes strategy development, operations, process redesign and metrics development, and information system implementation. Her consulting and managed care experience also includes benefit interpretation and standardization, utilization management and employer benefit design. Ms. Goldsmith holds a bachelor's degree in nursing from Russell Sage College, a Master of Business Administration from Western New England College and a certificate in health information technology from the University of Connecticut.

Thomas P. Meehan, MD, MPH, FACP
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Meehan is the chief medical officer of Qualidigm, the Connecticut-based Quality Improvement Organization and designated Patient Safety Organization. Since coming to Qualidigm in 1992, Dr. Meehan has played a lead role in numerous local and national Medicare quality improvement projects in hospital and outpatient settings. He is an active clinician teacher in the Yale Hypertension Practice and an accomplished researcher and public speaker. Dr. Meehan is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and serves on a variety of national and local technical expert panels and advisory boards, including eHealth Connecticut and the National Quality Forum. He received his Bachelor of Science, Medical, and Master of Public Health degrees from the University of Connecticut; he also completed an internal medicine internship and residency at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA, a general internal medicine fellowship at the University of Connecticut Health Center, and a hypertension fellowship at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Dr. Meehan’s main area of professional interest is in the development of effective methods to measure and improve the quality of health care.

 
Kathleen A. Warren, BSN, MS
Chief Corporate Services Officer
Ms. Warren is the chief corporate services officer of Qualidigm, the Connecticut-based Quality Improvement Organization and designated Patient Safety Organization, and has been with the company since its founding. In addition to her leadership role, Ms. Warren is directing Qualidigm's ISO 9001 registration activities. She has 25 years of health care experience working with private and public sector companies in consulting, technical and managerial capacities. Prior to joining Qualidigm, she held several positions in the Hartford County Peer Standards Review Organization, including director of education and evaluation. Ms. Warren is a registered nurse and has a bachelor's degree in nursing from Rutgers and a Master of Health Care Management degree from The Hartford Graduate Center. She has also completed the Connecticut Quality Council's Quality Management Certificate Program.

Key Staff

Judith K. Barr, ScD
Senior Scientist
Dr. Barr is a Senior Scientist at Qualidigm, the Connecticut-based Quality Improvement Organization and designated Patient Safety Organization. Since joining the company in 1997, Dr. Barr has served as the project director for Qualidigm on the Rhode Island Department of Health project to measure and publicly report hospital patient satisfaction, including cognitive testing of consumer-focused quality reports and an evaluation of the impact of the public reports on hospital quality improvement. She also was principal investigator for a project led by RTI International to interview physicians about their responses to public reports of hospital quality and is working with RTI and Baruch College on an extension of this CMS-funded work. Dr. Barr has directed several mammography projects at Qualidigm targeting underserved populations, and she is currently principal investigator for a national Susan G. Komen Foundation grant aimed at understanding the barriers and facilitators to mammography use experienced by disabled women. Prior to joining Qualidigm, Dr. Barr was research director at the Health Insurance Plan of Greater New York where she conducted a randomized intervention trial to increase mammography screening, and studies of member and provider satisfaction. Her work in these and other areas has been published in numerous professional journals. Dr. Barr has taught for over 20 years at Rutgers and New York Universities. Her primary area of interest is physicians' views of changes in the health care system, especially related to quality of care. Dr. Barr earned her Doctor of Science degree in behavioral sciences and medical sociology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health.

Anne Elwell, RN, BS, MPH, CPHQ
Director of Quality Improvement Consulting Services
Ms. Ellwell is Director of Quality Improvement Consulting Services at Qualidigm, the Connecticut-based Quality Improvement Organization and designated Patient Safety Organization. She has over 20 years of experience in the quality improvement field and has been with Qualidigm since 1988. In 1999 she was appointed the director of quality improvement consulting services. Ms. Elwell has completed the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services-sponsored Doctor's Office Quality - Information Technology (DOQ-IT) training series and the Dartmouth College Clinical Microsystems Office Redesign Program. Prior to joining Qualidigm, Ms. Elwell was a nurse and office manager in a primary care physician's practice. She is a certified professional of health care quality (CPHQ) and completed her Master of Public Health degree at the University of Connecticut.

Shih-Yieh Ho, MPH, PhD
Manager of Analysis
Dr. Ho is the Manager of Analysis and a Senior Analyst at Qualidigm, the Connecticut-based Quality Improvement Organization and designated Patient Safety Organization. She joined Qualidigm in 2001 and provides analytical expertise in applied health care research and epidemiology to the Medicare inpatient and outpatient project teams and other company projects. She is experienced in analyzing ORYX and CMS related measures and was the lead in designing the series of quality improvement reports Qualidigm prepares and distributes to Connecticut hospitals. Prior to joining Qualidigm, Dr. Ho was a director in the neurosurgical research department at the University of Connecticut Health Center and Hartford Hospital. In that role, she provided leadership to the residency research program. At Hartford Hospital she also served as a project manager in the stroke outcomes unit. Dr. Ho received her Master of Public Health from the University of Connecticut and her doctorate from the University of Georgia.

Nancy Safer, RN, MSN
Project Manager
Ms. Safer is a Project Manager at Qualidigm, the Connecticut-based Quality Improvement Organization and designated Patient Safety Organization. She joined the company in 2003 as a project coordinator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicare Patient Safety Monitoring System (MPSMS) special study. She currently is project manager for the Qualidigm Patient Safety Organization (PSO) and other company projects. She has a strong background in clinical practice along with project development and management experience. Prior to joining Qualidigm, she was the director of utilization management for Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Connecticut where she established and managed the review operations for the company's managed care program. Ms. Safer has held faculty positions at Boston University and Rush University College of Nursing and has been retained as an independent consultant with various professional groups and institutional organizations. She received her bachelor's degree in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Science in Nursing from the Rush University College of Nursing.