TEAM - Healthcare Innocence Project

C. R. Denham, II, MD
CEO, HCC Global
Chairman, TMIT Global
Austin, TX

Dr. Denham is a founder The Healthcare Innocence Project after spending many years helping victims of patient safety accidents, whistleblower retaliation, and after personally being harmed by unethical competitors. The focus is “failure to rescue” of victims of fraudulent behavior. This includes improper treatment of caregivers and patients through the Coronavirus Crisis. He is also the founder and CEO of TMIT Global a 501c3 medical research organization at www.safetyleaders.org which is a sponsor of the project. He is the founder and sole owner of HCC Global Corporation a private innovation incubator. Read More

He developed CareUniversity which is the educational delivery system used by TMIT Global and the Med Tac Bystander Care Certificate Program which his development team funded and produced. Together with Dr. Gregory Botz and Chief William Adcox of MD Anderson Cancer Center, he is developing and testing the Med Tac Global innovations as a component of establishing the field of Threat Safety Science. Dr. Denham is a 2018 Pete Conrad Global Patient Safety Award winner for co-founding Med Tac Global and his role in pioneering the program for schools, churches, and scout groups. During his career spanning 35 years, he and his organizations have served hundreds of innovation teams. While in practice as a radiation oncologist, he taught biomedical engineering and product development. He has taught innovation adoption, technology transfer, and commercialization in both academia and industry.

He has been an adjunct Professor of Health Engineering at the Mayo Clinic Medical School and had teaching appointments as an Instructor at the Harvard School of Public Health and as a Lecturer with the faculty of Harvard Medical School. He was a Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow in 2009 and a Senior Fellow in 2010 and 2011. His work there led to the production of a series of global documentaries on the Discovery Channel. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of the global Journal of Patient Safety, and has more than 100 works including peer-reviewed papers and multimedia productions. He has been ranked in the top 50 Most Influential Physician Executives by Modern Healthcare in multiple years, and he has served as a regular columnist for the Wall Street Journal program The Experts: Journal Reports. He is an advisor to and collaborator with a number of Stanford University programs. Dr. Denham is a PADI Certified Rescue Diver, scout leader, and Stop the Bleed instructor with the American College of Surgeons program. He is an American Heart Association CPR/AED Instructor and has undertaken extensive wilderness first aid training with the American Red Cross. He has extensive aviation safety experience having been a private jet pilot, owned an aircraft manufacturing company with a global customer base, and operated air ambulance and charter services. He founded HCC Global, a for-profit innovation incubator, and TMIT Global, a non-profit medical research organization, in the early ‘80s; the companies work collaboratively on common innovation programs. CareUniversity, focused on continuing education of consumers and caregivers is the delivery system for MedTac Global which is one of these global initiatives in development. His current research and development work is in the area of Threat Safety Science focused on reducing preventable harm to families, caregivers, and institutions. His focus in communities is bystander care through Med Tac. His focus in healthcare institutions is caregiver harm and patient safety including insider threats including fraud and outsider threats including workplace violence.

John J. Nance, JD
Best-selling Author and Pilot
Journalist and Patient Safety Expert
Leadership Educator and Champion
Editor-in-Chief Red Cover Reports
Friday Harbor, WA

John J. Nance JD is a lawyer, former airline captain and Air Force pilot, broadcast and print investigative journalist,prolific internationally-published author, and one of the leading patient safety experts in the world. Read More

Heather Foster, RN
Patient Safety Champion
National Caregiver Advocate

Heather Foster is a founding advisor to The Healthcare Innocence Project who inspires other caregivers to take the “ethical high road” when mistreated after a patient safety accident. She is a practicing nurse who is expanding her role to infection prevention in Colorado and has championed the cause of patient and caregiver safety with great courage and faith after her patient died a preventable death of sepsis. Read More

Dan Ford, MBA, LFACHE
Voluntary Patient Safety Advocate Spectrum Health EPFAC and Hospital Group Board
Quality & Safety Committee Member
TMIT Patient Advocate Team Member
Retired Healthcare Executive Search Consultant
Veteran, Naval Aviation, Vietnam War
Rockford, MI

Dan Ford is a national patient advocate and patient safety advisor to The Healthcare Innocence Project. He developed a deep passion for patient safety as a result of medical errors experienced by his first wife, and the treatment he experienced when he started asking logical and genuine questions. Read More

His wife at 47 years of age was pursuing her second master’s degree, and suffered a morphine-induced respiratory arrest following a hysterectomy. She has permanent brain damage/short-term memory loss and a poor quality of life, and resides in an independent living facility. Desiring to convert his anger, hurt, and frustration into constructive change – delayed because of a nine-year medical malpractice lawsuit – and using his visibility as a healthcare executive search consultant, Dan became a patient safety advocate in 2002. He has given 90 patient safety presentations to boards of directors, management, and physician leadership of hospitals, systems, other provider organizations, and HRSA. He is a CAPS member and WHO/PAHO champion, and works with TMIT and a group of other patient safety advocates on listening, disclosure, and related initiatives. He has served on a number of other provider patient safety and quality committees nationally and in Arizona, including ISMP, NQF, The Joint Commission, IHI, AzHHA, Catholic Health Partners, and Carondelet Health Network. He helped to plan and facilitate CAPS “Partnering with Provider” workshops at Northwestern Memorial in Chicago, Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, and AzHHA in Phoenix in 2008 and 2009. In 2010, Dan is a co-author of “Collaborating with patients and their families” in the Journal of Healthcare Risk Management, the Journal of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management. The story of serious medical errors experienced by Dan’s wife and the impacts his family has endured is told in a chapter of Dr. Sanjay Kumar’s book, Fatal Care: Survive in the U.S. Health System. Dan authored an article on patient and family involvement in root cause analyses, which appeared in the December 2013 online issue of Dorland Health’s Case in Point.Dan is a retired Vice President with Furst Group, a national healthcare executive search firm headquartered in Rockford, Illinois. His MBA is from the University of Chicago, preceded by a BS from Jamestown University in North Dakota. He was in the Navy from 1964-69, a Naval Aviator in a transport squadron which serviced the fleet in the Pacific during the Vietnam War.

Becky Martins
Founder, Voice4Patients.com
TMIT Patient Advocate Team Member
Warren, ME

Becky Martins passed away in fall of 2020. She was a tireless national patient safety advocate and expert with direct experience in dealing with corporate healthcare misbehavior. She is known for the inspirational affirmations and support she provided to caregivers during global webinars and presentations. Read More

Jennifer Dingman
Founder, Persons United Limiting Substandards and Errors in Healthcare (PULSE),
Colorado Division Co-founder,
PULSE American Division
TMIT Patient Advocate Team Member
Pueblo, CO

Jennifer Dingman is a national Patient Safety expert advisor to our program who is a published author and champion for ethical care. She realized, after her mother’s death in 1995 due to errors in medical diagnoses and treatment, that there is little to no help available for patients and their families in similar situations. This life-changing experience left her feeling vulnerable, and she decided to dedicate her life to help prevent medical tragedies from happening to others. In 1996, Jennifer founded PULSE of Colorado, now a national organization, as a platform to support patients and their families who had experienced medical errors and other adverse medical outcomes. Read More

Arlene Salamendra
Former Board member and Staff Coordinator,
Families Advocating Injury Reduction (FAIR);
TMIT Patient Advocate Team Member
Plano, IL

Arlene Salamendra brings to our program great expertise in healthcare workplace violence and bullying. She is a published author, global award winner, and champion for patients and families. She is a role model for speaking truth to power in an honorable and dignified way. Read More