M. Bridget Duffy

M. Bridget Duffy, M.D. is a physician, speaker, and thought leader on the customer experience in healthcare. Considered the founder and leader of the patient experience movement, Dr. Duffy has spent more than 20 years defining the components of an optimal healing environment and designing innovative ways to humanize healthcare. She was the country’s first healthcare chief experience officer, at the Cleveland Clinic and has been relentless in her mission to improve healthcare communication and restore compassion and joy to the practice of medicine.

Biographical information

M. Bridget Duffy, MD, is the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Vocera Communications, Inc., which provides integrated, intelligent communication that address critical communication challenges within healthcare and other mission-critical industries.

Prior to her appointment as CMO at Vocera, Dr. Duffy co-founded and served as Chief Executive Officer of ExperiaHealth, a company whose mission is to assist organizations in rapidly improving staff and patient loyalty through innovative technologies and solutions that restore the human connection in healthcare. ExperiaHealth was acquired by Vocera Communications and now drives the company’s thought leadership and research collaborative as the Experience Innovation Network.

Dr. Duffy was an early pioneer in the creation of hospitalist medicine and launched programs to accelerate clinical discovery in the field of Integrative and Heart-Brain medicine, helping establish the Earl and Doris Bakken Heart Brain Institute. She previously served as Chief Experience Officer (CXO) of the Cleveland Clinic – the first senior position of its kind in the nation – leading the institution in improving patient experience as its top strategic priority. She is a frequent speaker on the subject of why patient experience matters and how it impacts clinical outcomes.

Dr. Duffy’s work has earned her several accolades. She was named the “2015 Woman of the Year” by Women Health Care Executives and selected as one of the “Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business for 2015” by San Francisco Business Times. In 2014, Dr. Duffy was recognized as a “Health IT Change Agent” by Health IT Outcomes and named among the “Top 50 in Digital Healthcare” by Rock Health. She also earned the Quantum Leap Award for taking the risk to spur internal change in the field of medicine, and was featured in HealthLeaders magazine as one of “20 People Who Make Healthcare Better.”

Dr. Duffy attended medical school at the University of Minnesota, and completed her residency in internal medicine at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She currently serves on the advisory boards of Velano Vascular and Maven Clinic, and is on the board of directors for Rock Health and Children’s HeartLink.

Publications

• The Importance of Preventing Physician, Nurse Burnout: Hospitals and Health Networks
• Driving Practice Growth by Restoring Humanity to Healthcare: Physician's Money Digest
• Three Ways to Empower Patients to Improve Health Outcomes: Executive Insight
• The Business Case for Innovating Communications in Healthcare: Fierce Practice Management
• How Healthcare Organizations Drive Loyalty and Growth: Becker's Hospital Review
• Four Steps to Improve the Patient Experience and Heal the Art of Medicine: Engaging the Patient, December 2010

Videos

• The Science of Compassion, Stanford 2014
• Designing the Ideal Healthcare Experience, RockHealth 2012
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WO96j-mVsY Empowering Patients to Improve care], California Healthcare Foundation 2011
• M. Bridget Duffy, MD Restoring Dignity to Healthcare, GEL 2009
• Patient Experience as a Top Priority, GEL 2008