Dr. Donald Berwick, Presidential Appointee

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President Obama has appointed Dr. Donald Berwick, who won the $100,000 Purpose Prize in 2007, to be administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which operates health programs that insure almost a third of all Americans.

The president pushed through a "recess appointment" of Berwick during Congress' annual Fourth of July break, triggering some criticism by Republicans. Noting that the CMS post had been unfilled since 2006, Obama's communications director, Dan Pfeiffer, wrote on the White House blog that Republications "were going to stall the nomination as long as they could, solely to score political points."

In The New York Times, Robert Pear said Berwick "personifies Mr. Obama's determination to shake up the health care system. Working with numerous hospitals and clinics around the county, Dr. Berwick has shown that it is possible to reduce medical errors and improve the quality of care while reducing the cost."

He quoted Sander M. Levin, D-Mich., who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, as describing Berwick as "a visionary leader."

Pear said Berwick "would carry out major provisions of the law expanding Medicaid, for low-income people, and slowing the projected growth of Medicare, for older Americans."

In his new role, Berwick heads an agency with 4,500 employees and an annual budget of $780 billion that oversees government health insurance programs for the elderly, the poor and the disabled. He is expected to have major influence on the overhaul of health care in the United States.

Berwick, a pediatrician with a master's degree in public policy, was president and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), clinical professor of pediatrics and health care policy at Harvard Medical School, and professor of health policy and management at Harvard School of Public Health.

In 2004, at the age of 57, Berwick and IHI launched a political-style campaign to improve hospital safety and save lives. The goal of the 100,000 Lives Campaign was to help hospitals reduce unnecessary deaths by implementing six specific, scientifically proven improvements in care, including ones aimed at reducing medication errors and infections. In 18 months, 3,100 hospitals joined the effort and reduced deaths by 120,000 over the prior year.

Watch a three-minute video of Donald Berwick.