ACHS Medallist 2022 - Professor David Pilcher
The Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS) has awarded its prestigious ACHS Medal 2022 to Professor David Pilcher, Clinical Lead at the Victorian Critical Care Network, Safer Care Victoria and Chair, ANZICS Centre for Outcome and Resource Evaluation, Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society
Professor David Pilcher’s contribution to safety and quality in Australian health care has been most impressive. Professor Pilcher has demonstrated distinguished leadership through his work using data to support safety, quality and continuous improvement in healthcare.
Photo Caption - Pictured left to right: Professor David Pilcher (ACHS Medallist 2022) and Professor Len Notaras AO (ACHS President).
His contributions have been felt across the entire healthcare system with national leadership positions including:
- Clinical Lead Victorian Critical Care Network, Safer Care Victoria
- Chair, ANZICS Centre for Outcome and Resource Evaluation Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society
- Adjunct Clinical Professor Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University
- Deputy Director of Intensive Care, The Alfred Hospital, Prahran, Melbourne
Professor Pilcher has shown outstanding leadership and has been a strong advocate for the use of data in a clinical setting to support quality and safety improvement. As the Director of the ANZICS Adult Patient Database, Professor Pilcher has implemented rigorous processes to ensure data integrity and ensure ongoing funding of a bi-national resource. This proved of significant value during the COVID-19 pandemic as it was the strong foundations of the ANZICS database that enabled the rapid development of the CHRIS system, that shows in ‘real time’ the ICU resources available at a local, state, and national level. The CHRIS database proved crucial to supporting government decision-making and ensure the safety and quality of healthcare during the pandemic.
Professor Pilcher was responsible for the development of successful statistical techniques for feedback and benchmarking of individual ICU’s performance. He also led the development of a new severity of illness adjustment model which supports hospital level safety and quality assurance as well as state level interventions. Importantly, under his leadership more detailed reports are provided to poorly performing ‘outliers’ with support available to address issues that are identified.
Over 250 research articles have been published by Professor Pilcher in the last 10 years, most relating to safety, quality and patient outcomes. His work is recognised both nationally and internationally as world leading and has made a major contribution to our understanding of factors that influence patient outcomes in healthcare.
Professor Pilcher’s utmost dedication to patient safety is strongly reflected in his work.
Congratulations David on your many achievements and being the deserving winner of the prestigious ACHS Medal 2022.
