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Biography
Russell Gonnering took a non-standard path to medicine. He studied History at Boston College and the University of Vienna, thinking that understanding “starting point” was essential to knowing where one was going. Following graduation from the Medical College of Wisconsin and subsequent post-graduate training there and at the University of Wisconsin, he worked as an Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon in both private practice and academic medicine. He served as the Research Advisor to the Fellowship in Ophthalmic Plastic Surgery at the University of Wisconsin for twenty years, and under his mentorship a rich tradition of clinical and basic science research was developed, with numerous awards for quality of research.
Over twenty years ago, a workshop with Dr. Brent James at Intermountain Healthcare led to the realization that quality improvement would play an increasing role in healthcare . Additional education and responsibilities followed, including a Blackbelt in Six Sigma, becoming a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality, Co-Chair of the Quality Council of a 750 bed tertiary hospital, Technical Advisor to the National Quality Forum and moderator of healthcare presentations at the ASQ’s World Conference on Quality and Improvement.
In 2006, a herniated cervical disc and loss of fine motor skills forced a “change in perspective” from his position as Professor of Ophthalmology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He obtained a Master of Medical Management from the Marshall School of Business at USC and learned that Organizational Culture was the prime determinant of the performance of an institution. A chance reading of an article on Complexity Theory led Dr. Gonnering to study with David Snowden, exploring Wicked Problems and the tools needed to solve them. This was honed with further study with the Santa Fe Institute and research into Complexity and its application to healthcare outcomes and performance as a distance-based Research Professor with Arizona State University.
Dr. Gonnering is currently Adjunct Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Science at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He used the tools of both Organizational Culture and Complexity in his position as quality improvement consultant at the Zablocki VA Medical Center until he retired in 2017. He has written extensively in the medical and complexity literature and been invited presenter at multiple meetings and consultant on a number of studies, including in the past year, studies on treatment of COVID-19. He sees a bright future, especially regarding prevention and treatment of “burnout”, for those organizations that understand healthcare as a Complex Adaptive System.
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