Michael Kanter MD

Dr. Michael Kanter is the Chair of the Clinical Science Department of the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J Tyson School of Medicine. In that capacity, he oversees the faculty of all clinical departments in the Medical School and insures that the curriculum is aligned with the mission and vision of the School, is taught as expected, and promotes continuous quality improvement occurs in the department.

Prior to joining the medical school, Dr. Kanter filled two roles for Kaiser Permanente. He was the Executive Vice President for Quality and Chief Medical Officer for the Permanente Federation overseeing quality for Kaiser Permanente at a national level. He also was the Southern California Regional Medical Director for Quality and Clinical Analysis for the Southern California Permanente Medical Group where he oversaw, quality, safety, utilization of laboratory services, pharmacy, and radiology, clinical practice guidelines, population care management, health education, physician education, graduate medical education, measurement of access and service, purchaser engagement, research, and innovation.

Dr. Kanter received his MD from US San Francisco and a BS in Cybernetics from UCLA. Dr. Kanter has authored more than 90 articles published in peer review journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and the Harvard Business Review, and authored chapters in 5 books.

Dr. Kanter is a frequently invited speaker for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), National Patient Safety Foundation, and other major organizations on a variety of topics, including the Proactive Office Encounter, Complete Care, the Sure Net Program, ambulatory patient safety, improving the patient care experience, language concordance, and health disparities. He has participated in the Institute of Medicine Committee on Diagnostic Errors and in the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) Systems Engineering for healthcare report on accelerating improvement through systems engineering. He is the co-chair of the Practice Improvement Committee of the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine and is also a member of the Standards Committee of NCQA. Dr. Kanter is a recipient of the 2018 Donabedian Award given by the American Public Health Association and was a recipient of the 2015 John C Maxwell Leadership Award, Top 30.