Elizabeth Wick MD

Elizabeth C. Wick, M.D. is a professor of surgery, Vice Chair of Quality and Safety in the Department of Surgery, and Co-chair of the Department's Research Committee. Dr. Wick is an experienced laparoscopic surgeon and treats the entire spectrum of colorectal conditions including diverticular disease, inflammatory bowel disease, colon and rectal cancer, anal cancer, and perianal disease with a patient-­‐centered approach. 

Dr. Wick has also contributed to our understanding of almost every aspect of perioperative care from teamwork and communication to organizational culture to quality improvement and measurement. She has been consistently funded by the National Institutes of Health since 2010. She has published over 150 articles around quality and safety and the microbiome and is frequently asked to speak and share her expertise with other hospitals, state hospital associations, and professional societies across the United States and abroad. 

She is leading a national collaborative, in partnership with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the American College of Surgeons, around accelerating the dissemination of surgical pathways across 4 surgical areas (colorectal, gynecology, orthopedics, and emergency general surgery) over five years. To date, over 300 hospitals have joined the program, and engagement and improvement have been remarkable. Recognizing that measurement is essential to evaluating implementation, Dr. Wick is interested in harnessing the electronic health record to better measure performance and is working on automating surgical site infection measurement using advanced informatics (R01). 

Dr. Wick is a recognized national leader in research to reduce surgical site infections and formulate strategies for improving perioperative care. She has published more than 75 articles in this area and is frequently invited to speak and share her expertise with other hospitals. Most recently, she led an AHRQ-funded national collaborative to improve surgical safety and reduce surgical site infections in 250 hospitals across the US and abroad.