Announcing Dr Carsten Engel as the next CEO of ISQua and ISQua EEA

On behalf of the Board, Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite, President of the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua) and ISQua External Evaluation Association (ISQua EEA) is delighted to announce Dr Carsten Engel as the next Chief Executive Officer of the Society, taking up the position on 1 May 2021.

On behalf of the Board, Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite, President of the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua) and ISQua External Evaluation Association (ISQua EEA) is delighted to announce Dr Carsten Engel as the next Chief Executive Officer of the Society, taking up the position on 1 May 2021.

At the University of Copenhagen, Carsten obtained an M.Sc. in Physics and Chemistry in 1977 and graduated as a physician in 1984; he holds specialist recognition as an anesthesiologist. After a clinical career in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, in 2006 he joined IKAS, the Danish Institute for Quality and Accreditation in Health Care, as an Accreditation Manager. He was appointed Deputy Chief Executive in 2010. Here he has been a leading member of the team that developed and implemented the Danish Healthcare Quality Programme. By the end of 2021, IKAS will have performed over 6000 accreditations in all sectors of Danish healthcare.

Carsten has been a member of ISQua’s/ISQua EEA’s Accreditation Council since 2010, and has been Deputy Chair for the period 2016-2021; he has been recognized as an ISQua Expert since 2013 and was appointed a Member of the International Academy of Quality and Safety in 2019. He has contributed to the development of ISQua’s International Accreditation Programme and has been an ISQua EEA surveyor since 2010. His passion for quality and safety in healthcare internationally is very well known. 

While accreditation has been his professional focus area, this has led to a broader interest in what it is that can make a system as complex as healthcare perform well, and how we can help existing systems improve – across low-, middle- and high-income settings.

In addition to his passion for quality and safety in healthcare, Carsten is interested in exploring history and literature, and he enjoys travelling with his family.

Quality and safety of healthcare remain a challenge across the world. While the problems are reasonably well identified, solutions are hard to implement. Carsten believes we are moving into a decade of actions in order to convert knowledge and concepts into real transformational improvement.

In taking up the role, Dr Engel said, “It is a privilege to accept the offer to join ISQua and ISQua EEA as CEO, following in the footsteps of Dr Peter Lachman and the wonderful work of the Society to date. There is an enormous amount of experience and knowledge relevant to this transformation in the networks organized by ISQua; all lines of activity in ISQua serve in one way or another to help spread this experience and knowledge. ISQua can and will clearly play an important role in what is shaping up to be a decade of transformation, across the 2020s. The reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated that healthcare can move quickly in response to a crisis. So this is a pivotal moment to step in as CEO of ISQua. I hope to be able to help ISQua make a tangible difference as a catalyst for the challenges to come.”

Peter Lachman, outgoing CEO said, “I welcome Dr Carsten Engel, who has been appointed to succeed me as CEO of ISQua and ISQua EEA. Carsten is well known to the ISQua and ISQua EEA community. He will join ISQua, which is the leading organisation in quality and safety, and ISQua EEA which is the leader in external evaluation in healthcare. More importantly, Carsten will join the ISQua worldwide network and community of improvers, learners, clinicians, patients, administrators and policymakers in all regions of the world. As we emerge from the pandemic this community will come together to deliver a better service aimed at equity and health for all. I wish him well in his new endeavour to take ISQua and ISQua EEA to the next level.”

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Elom Otchi

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Stephen Taiye Balogun

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Dr Rhoda Kalondu

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Dr Subhrojyoti Bhowmick

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