Sean R. Townsend, M.D., is an healthcare executive and intensivist in San Francisco. Dr. Townsend has served in variety of executive leadership roles that have defined his 
expertise. He was previously Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Quality & Safety at Sutter Health’s California Pacific Medical Center for 15 years. Dr. Townsend is board certified in critical care medicine and is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at University of California, San Francisco. He is a nationally recognized leader in patient safety and quality improvement, a perennial faculty member at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and one of the seminal leaders of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign. Dr. Townsend is deeply interested in clinical quality measurement and guiding healthcare leaders and frontline professionals to embrace change using data to drive decisions. Presently he serves as measure steward for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Service’s first sepsis quality measure, SEP-1, and is advising CMS’ effort to build 3 new electronic clinical quality measures: anticoagulant related major bleeding, post-operative DVT, and a 
new composite measure for hospital harm.