Marcus Schabacker, MD, PhD, ECRI’s president and CEO, has been honored by the Philadelphia Business Journal with a Leaders in Healthcare 2021 Award. This award recognizes Schabacker for making an indelible impact in ensuring patient safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Schabacker took important steps in early 2020 to prepare the healthcare community for what would become a global pandemic. He established the ECRI COVID-19 Resource Center with free and shareable information on emergency preparedness; infection prevention; and medical treatments, processes, and practices. Leading healthcare authorities endorsed the site spurring nearly half a million page views by people worldwide seeking emergency preparedness checklists, personal protective equipment (PPE) supplier lists, infection control best practices, and clinical evidence assessments.
ECRI’s COVID-19 Resource Center currently includes more than 350 publicly available resources, lab webcast recordings, and clinical guidelines. The most recent guidance addresses vaccine safety and global health equity and an evidence review supporting the effectiveness of masks, as part of an infection control bundle, for children in schools.
“As we learned more about the virus, the treatments, protocol, and processes changed. ECRI monitored and communicated these developments, debunking myths and providing evidence-based strategies for managing equipment shortages, medication safety issues, and mental health concerns,” says Schabacker.
Throughout the pandemic, Schabacker has been interviewed extensively by national news outlets. His leadership enabled ECRI, a respected patient safety organization, to step to the forefront in developing evidence-based guidance that empowered providers with the information they required to meet worker and patient needs during unprecedented challenges.
“I am proud of how ECRI came together to create the COVID-19 Resource Center which became a ‘go-to’ source of trustworthy guidance worldwide. Beyond that, I am incredibly proud of how our employees quickly transitioned to an all-virtual work environment, and seamlessly provided trusted evidence-based assurance to our members and the public during a time of fear and uncertainty,” adds Schabacker.
Schabacker joined ECRI in January 2018, as the nonprofit organization’s third CEO in its 53-year history. ECRI is headquartered in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., with international offices in the United Kingdom, Malaysia, and the United Arab Emirates. Schabacker is a board-certified anesthesiologist and intensive care specialist with more than 35 years of healthcare experience in complex global environments, and more than 20 years of senior leadership responsibilities serving the medical device and pharmaceutical industries.
For more information about Marcus Schabacker and ECRI’s role in guiding the healthcare community and the public with evidence-based guidance, download the ECRI COVID-19 Journey.
