Health Leads President Rocco Perla Receives American Society for Quality's Deming Medal

Healthcare Quality Improvement Visionary Honored by Global Organization Committed to Transforming Corporations, Organizations and Communities

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Health Leads

May 16, 2016, 12:00 ET

BOSTON, May 16, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Health Leads President Rocco Perla has been awarded the American Society for Quality (ASQ) Deming Medal for his contributions to advancing the science of improvement across industry, academia and government worldwide. A healthcare industry veteran, Perla's career is highlighted by achievements in public service, research and education around new models of care to increase value and improve patient health and well-being.

Health Leads President Rocco Perla accepts the Deming Medal from ASQ Chair Patricia La Londe at the 70th ASQ World Conference held in Milwaukee, Wis. The international award, which honors those who combine the application of statistical thinking and management so that each supports and enhances the other, was bestowed in honor of Perla's visionary approach to healthcare quality improvement.

Celebrating its 70^th year, ASQ is considered a leading authority on quality improvement worldwide. The Deming Medal is presented in honor of American engineer Dr. W. Edwards Deming to one person who has successfully combined the application of statistical thinking and management in support of the other, leading to exceptional quality in products and services. The award has been given only twice since 2010.

"Deming did nothing less than call for a revolution that would bring greater peace and prosperity to all people by giving leaders of industry the courage, knowledge and tools to fundamentally transform the systems they are responsible for – and I'm honored to follow the footsteps of other Deming Medal recipients who have extended this thinking across the world," said Perla. "The challenge of creating a more just health system also involves a revolution, because it means we must change many of our basic assumptions to include addressing the unmet basic human needs impacting the lives and health of patients. As Deming taught us, to transform the system in a sustainable way, we have to account for all of it."

Perla joined Health Leads in January 2016 after four years of leadership at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) where he was instrumental in establishing the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation, created by the Affordable Care Act to test new payment and service delivery models aimed at improving care and health and lowering costs. He also served as director of the Learning and Diffusion Group, driving the establishment of a national learning system used to test these models collaboratively across a wide range of public and private partners. Part of this learning system included national safety campaigns that led to unprecedented reductions in patient harm across the United States. Earlier in his career, he helped launch and direct the Center for Innovation and Transformational Change at UMass Memorial Health Care and was named a Merck Family Fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

"Deming articulated a standard for leadership to which many would aspire and few could achieve. It is apt that Rocco receive this great honor as he embodies this standard, with a rare capacity to both spark and sustain meaningful change in others and in the healthcare sector," said Health Leads Co-founder and CEO Rebecca Onie. "Rocco's passion for and ability to catalyze systemic improvement in one of the most complex sectors is an incalculable asset as more and more healthcare delivery organization join the social needs revolution and seek to deliver on the promise of health."

The organization delivered its Distinguished Service and Society Medals last night in Milwaukee, Wis., kicking off its annual World Conference on Quality and Improvement. For more information about the ASQ and the ASQ awards program, visit www.asq.org/about-asq/awards.

About ASQ
ASQ is a global community of people dedicated to quality who share the ideas and tools that make our world work better. With millions of individual and organizational members of the community in 150 countries, ASQ has the reputation and reach to bring together the diverse quality champions who are transforming the world's corporations, organizations and communities to meet tomorrow's critical challenges. Celebrating 70 years in 2016, ASQ, with its world headquarters in Milwaukee, Wis., USA, operates regional centers in the U.S. and Canada, North Asia, South Asia, Latin America and Middle East and Africa. Learn more about ASQ's members, mission, technologies and training at asq.org.

About Health Leads
Health Leads is a social enterprise that envisions a healthcare system that addresses all patients' basic resource needs as a standard part of quality care. For 20 years, Health Leads has worked with leading healthcare organizations to tackle social co-morbidities by connecting patients to the community-based resources they need to be healthy – from food to transportation to healthcare benefits. Health Leads is committed to leveraging its tools, expertise and direct services to change what "counts" as healthcare – and accelerate the leadership, best practices, incentives and research required to improve the health and well-being of patients. Learn more at www.healthleadsusa.org, reach us at [email protected] and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

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