ASA Announces Alex Hannenberg, M.D., New Chief Quality Officer

CHICAGO – The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) today announced the selection of Alex Hannenberg, M.D., interim chief quality officer. Dr. Hannenberg’s dedication, service and passion for the specialty are recognized throughout anesthesiology and the health care industry. 

“With the continual transformation in health care, ASA is excited to have the insight and critical experience of Dr. Hannenberg as interim chief quality officer,” said ASA CEO Paul Pomerantz. “Dr. Hannenberg brings an integrated approach to multiple professional disciplines critical to the future for our members and the patients they serve; quality, value-based health care delivery and economics.”

As chief quality officer, Dr. Hannenberg will lead ASA’s Quality and Practice Advancement Division to more effectively support ASA members in addressing emerging challenges related to value-based payment practice improvement. The division consists of three departments: Economics and Practice Innovation; Quality Measurement, Reporting and Improvement (including the Anesthesia Quality Institute [AQI]); and Analytics and Research Services.

In addition to providing day-to-day oversight of the division, Dr. Hannenberg will help establish and optimize relationships with relevant regulatory, scientific and medical organizations.  A critical aspect of his tenure as interim chief quality officer will be to advise ASA on the future role of the position as well as to identify and mentor future leaders in the areas of quality and economics.

As a past president of the Society, chair of the Committee on Economics and vice president for professional affairs on the Administrative Council, Dr. Hannenberg is well known to ASA. He has previously represented ASA on both the Relative Value Update Committee (RUC) and the Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement. He contributed to the creation of the AQI and is founder of ASA’s Charitable Foundation. Dr. Hannenberg received ASA’s 2015 Distinguished Service Award in recognition of his passion for global health and humanitarian outreach and his remarkable contributions to ASA. The award is the highest honor ASA bestows and is presented annually to a member who has transformed the specialty of anesthesiology. 

Dr. Hannenberg is a clinical professor of anesthesiology at Tufts University School of Medicine and is a senior research scientist in the Safe Surgery Program at Ariadne Labs (Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) in Boston.  He received his medical degree from Tufts University and completed his residency in anesthesiology at Beth Israel Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Boston.

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ANESTHESIOLOGISTS®

Founded in 1905, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA®) is an educational, research and scientific society with more than 52,000 members organized to raise and maintain the standards of the medical practice of anesthesiology. ASA is committed to ensuring physician anesthesiologists evaluate and supervise the medical care of patients before, during and after surgery to provide the highest quality and safest care every patient deserves.