Faculty Profile

Biography

MARK A. BEST MD, MBA, MPH, MS, FCAP, FASCP is certified by the American Board of Pathology in Anatomic Pathology, Clinical Pathology, and Blood Banking – Transfusion Medicine, and is a fellow of the College of American Pathologists, and the American Society of Clinical Pathology. He is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, and is listed in the 2009 Who’s Who in America. He is a member of the Academy for Healthcare Improvement, American Statistical Association, American Educational Research Association, and Psychometric Society, and is a member of The Florida Medical School Committee on Patient Safety Curriculum Activities. He received the Patient Safety Improvement Award in 2002. He is a former fellow of the Veterans Administration National Quality Scholars Fellowship Program, and has teaching experience since 1992. He has several years of academic administration experience, and is an expert in the core competencies of “practice-based learning & improvement,” and in “systems-based practice.” He coauthored Benjamin Franklin: Verification & Validation of the Scientific Process in Healthcare, and has written numerous articles, book chapters, and book reviews on laboratory medicine, medical education, healthcare systems, and healthcare quality improvement. At LECOM-Bradenton, he is the Course Director for the “Spirituality, Medicine & Ethics” course, and is chair of the PBL-case improvement committee, and is Medicine Leader for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Open School, Bradenton chapter.

Research and Areas of Interest
Clinical & research interests – medical education, general pathology, blood banking & transfusion medicine, health services research (eg  patient safety, medical errors, clinical epidemiology)

Teaching interests – PBL, pathology, medical ethics, health services management, biostatistics, epidemiology, & evidence-based medicine

Recent publications

Slavin LP, Best MA, Aron DC; TO REGIONALIZE OR NOT TO REGIONALIZE: THAT IS THE QUESTION Part I: Volume-Outcome Relationships – Conceptual and Methodological Framework; The Endocrinologist, 2000; May, 10(3): 205-210.

Best MA, Slavin LP, Aron DC; TO REGIONALIZE OR NOT TO REGIONALIZE: THAT IS THE QUESTION Part II: Volume-Outcome Relationships – Endocrine Disorders and their Treatment; The Endocrinologist, 2000; July, 10(4): 265-269.

Slavin L, Best MA, Aron DC; Gone But Not Forgotten: The Search for the Lost Surgical Specimens: Application of Quality Improvement Techniques in Reducing Medical Error; Quality Management in Health Care, 2001, 10(1), 45-53.

Best M, Neuhauser D, Slavin L; Evaluating Mesmerism: Paris, 1784: The controversy over the blinded, placebo controlled trials has not stopped; Quality and Safety in Health Care, 2003, June; 12(3):232-3.

Best M, Neuhauser D, Slavin L; “Cotton Mather, You Dog, Damn You! I’ll inoculate You with this; with a Pox to You” Smallpox Inoculation, Boston, 1721; Quality and Safety in Health Care, 2004, 13(1), 82-83.

Best M, Neuhauser D; Ignaz Semmelweis and the birth of infection control, Vienna, 1847; Quality and Safety in Health Care, 2004, June; 13(3), 233-234.

Best M, Neuhauser D; Avedis Donabedian: father of quality assurance and poet; Quality and Safety in Health Care, 2004, December; 13(6), 472-473.

Best M, Neuhauser D; W. Edwards Deming: father of quality management, patient and composer; Quality and Safety in Health Care, 2005, Aug; 14(4):310-312.

Best M, Neuhauser D; Pierre-Charles-Alexandre Louis: master of the spirit of mathematical clinical science; Quality and Safety in Health Care, 2005, Dec; 14(6):462-464.

Best M, Neuhauser D; Walter A. Shewhart, 1924, and the Hawthorne factory; Quality and Safety in Health Care, 2006, April, 15(2):142-143.

Best M, Neuhauser D; Joseph Juran: overcoming resistance to organizational change. Quality and Safety in Health Care, 2006, October, 15(5): 380-382.

Tom Quinn, D.O., Thomas J. Fotopoulos, D.O., Mark Best, M.D., MBA, MPH; Attitudes and Confidence Levels of Second-Year Osteopathic Medical Students (OMS II) towards Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM). The AAO Journal, 2007, December, 23-27.

Best M, Katamba A, Neuhauser D; Making the Right Decision: Benjamin Franklin’s son dies of smallpox in 1736. Quality and Safety in Health Care, 2007, December, 16(6): 478-480.

Best M, Neuhauser D; Kaoru Ishikawa: from fishbones to world peace. Quality and Safety in Health Care, 2008, April, 17(2): 150-152.

Neuhauser D, Best M; Osler Peterson M.D. watches the Practice of Medicine. Quality and Safety in Health Care, 2010, August, 19(4): 365-366.

Tom A. Quinn, D.O., Mark A. Best, M.D., Thomas J. Fotopoulos, D.O., Lisa D. Ball, Veronica Ruston; Attitudes and Confidence Levels of Fourth-Year Osteopathic Medical Students (OMS IV) towards Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM). The AAO Journal, 2010, September, Vol 20 (3), 23-28.

Best M, Neuhauser D; Henry K. Beecher: Pain, Belief, and Truth at the Bedside. The powerful Placebo, Ethical Research, and Anesthesia Safety. Quality and Safety in Health Care, 2010, Oct.; 19(5): 466-468.

Best M, Neuhauser D; FOREWORD: Avedis Donabedian, medico e poeta ; In the Italian translation of Introduction to Quality Assurance in Healthcare, (Il Maestro e le margherite)  2010, November; xxxi-ii.

Best M, Neuhauser D; Did a Cowboy Rodeo Champion Create the Best Theory of Quality Improvement? Malcolm Baldrige and his Award. BMJ Quality and Safety, 2011,May; 20(5): 465-8.

Falter RA, Pignotti-Dumas K, Popish SJ, Petrelli HM, Best MA, Wilkinson JJ; A Service Learning Program in Providing Nutrition Education to Children. American Journal of Pharmaceeutical Education, 2011; 75 (5): Article 85: 1-7.