Timothy McDonald MD JD is the Chief Patient Safety and Risk Officer for RLDatix and a Professor of Law at Loyola University – Chicago. Tim is a Harvard-trained physician-attorney who has assisted hundreds of hospitals and health systems implement a principled approach to unexpected events that includes a commitment to communicate honestly to patient and families, provide peer support within the health care team, and the use of software technology to prevent, learn and improve following patient harm events, including the identification of opportunities to reduce disparities in healthcare. His federally funded research has focused on all of these domains and their impact on improving the quality of care while mitigating medical liability issues, including the establishment of teaching methodologies for all levels and professions in health care and law.

He has published dozens of articles in high impact peer reviewed journals such as Health Affairs, Journal of the American Medical Association, Health Services Research, and the New England Journal of Medicine. His published work has been cited by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology Patient Safety Report and CMS’s recently published Patient Safety Structural Measures.

He is a featured TEDx speaker for his talk on “Healing After Harm in Healthcare”.