Heon-Jae Jeong: Dr. Jeong received an MD degree in South Korea in 2002. Four years later, he matriculated at Johns Hopkins University and received MPH, MBA and DrPH degrees as a Sommer Scholar. In addition, he was selected as one of the five World Health Organization’s patient safety scholars in 2007

For several years, he has been involved in developing and improving patient safety systems in South Korea, Taiwan and Canada, as well as helping hospitals, including Johns Hopkins, design and implement safety programs. Dr. Jeong authored a Korea’s national bestseller, “Hospital User’s Manual: 33 Safety Rules for Patients,” which led many Korean hospitals to develop patient engagement programs for safer care.

Korea’s largest patient advocate association, along with the Ministry of Health and Welfare, developed a national patient safety campaign, “Smiling Patient, Safe Hospital” based on the contents of his book. Furthermore, he provided policy makers with reporting & learning systems framework that has been serving as the foundation of Korea’s patient safety law.

Through these works, he received the Korean Minister of Health and Welfare Award twice, in 2005 and 2013, as well as the Johns Hopkins University Alumni Association’s most prestigious Outstanding Graduate Award in 2014. In addition, Dr. Jeong has served as an Incident Management Faculty of the Canadian Patient Safety Institute, Director of International Affairs for the Korean Society for Patient Safety, Distinguished Advisor of Research and International Development for the Korea Institute for Healthcare Accreditation, Advisor of Joint Commission Taiwan, International Society for Quality in Health Care Fellow, and Editor-in-Chief and editorial board member for several academic journals. Also, as the president & CEO of The Care Quality Research Group (CQRG) he is working on various projects and studies on the quality and safety of health care globally.