Fort Washington, Pa. – September 08, 2026 -- ECRI, a global authority on healthcare safety and quality, has appointed Professor Najmedin Meshkati, PhD, to its Board of Trustees, bringing nearly four decades of complex-systems safety research from aviation, nuclear power, and petrochemical operations to the nonprofit's patient safety mission.
Meshkati investigated the world's most scrutinized industrial disasters
Professor Meshkati has examined the BP Texas City Refinery explosion, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. He testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation as a member of the FAA's independent Expert Panel on Boeing, which reviewed the company's safety management system and safety culture. He currently chairs the State of California's Diablo Canyon Independent Safety Committee.
His governance record spans healthcare oversight bodies from 2016 to 2024
Professor Meshkati served as a Commissioner of The Joint Commission from 2016 to 2024. He sits on the Governance Board of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation and the Quality Committee of the University of Southern California's Hospital Governing Boards. He is also active in the World Health Organization and Imperial College of London Global Patient Safety Collaborative, and holds tenured appointments at USC in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Industrial and Systems Engineering, and International Relations.
ECRI ties the appointment to its SafeSystem Solutions push
The board appointment coincides with ECRI deepening its focus on SafeSystem Solutions, an approach built on human factors engineering and workforce safety culture. Marcus Schabacker, MD, PhD, President and CEO of ECRI, said high-reliability industries such as aviation and nuclear power view safety through a system-wide lens rather than relying on individual vigilance, a practice he called "shortsighted and dangerous" when applied to healthcare.
ECRI frames patient harm as a systemic, not isolated, failure
Schabacker said patient harm typically results from a causal chain shaped by culture, systems, technology, and human factors rather than a single incident. ECRI has expanded its safety and quality portfolio through the 2020 acquisition of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, targeting medication errors, and the 2024 acquisition of The Just Culture Company, aimed at transforming healthcare workplace cultures.