Registration Open

The Idea

Perfect Care: Defining the Conversation

“Perfect care” is currently not a well-defined term in healthcare, but it encapsulates the primary goal that health systems grapple with: ensuring that every patient receives the best care possible for them. It incorporates areas of quality, safety, patient experience, finance, and more; it touches on tensions between standardization and personalization, consistency and innovation, and competing priorities at individual, system, and national scales.

This forum, the first of an annual series, aims to create a framework for perfect care, to encourage health systems to think differently from the status quo, and to drive a national conversation around what matters most to patient wellbeing.

UChicago Medicine welcomes thought leaders from major medical institutions to start this conversation at an invitation-only event November 7th of this year.

The Forum on Pursing Perfect Care is made possible by a generous donation in memory of a longtime UChicago Medicine board member who instilled in the health system the notion that we must strive for perfect care.

The Forum

Event Details

Date: Friday, November 7, 2025

Time: 7:30am-5pm

Location: Chicago, IL
222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza (MATTER)

Who: This event is by invitation only, for a small interprofessional team of 2-3 participants per institution. Teams will include a leader and a bedside/frontline practitioner, and at least one non-MD.

Cost: registration is complimentary and includes a welcome dinner, breakfast, lunch, and course materials.

Welcome dinner: Thursday, November 6 at 6:30pm,
Location TBD

Hotel options nearby include:

The Day

Draft Agenda

  • 7:30 AM Breakfast

  • 8:00 AM Welcome

  • 8:30 AM Defining Perfect Care: rotating small groups, share-out, and construct definition

  • 10:30 AM Break

  • 10:45 AM What are the Goalposts, and What Should we be Aiming for? Current and future metrics for quality & safety

  • 11:45 AM Co-construct Afternoon Agenda: Session topics proposed and voted by attendees

  • 12:15 PM Lunch

  • 1:15 PM Group Breakout Sessions & Share-Out

  • 2:30 PM Break

  • 2:45 PM Group Breakout Sessions & Share-Out

  • 4:00 PM Wrap Up: Taking this conversation out of these walls

  • 4:30 PM Happy (Half) Hour

The Team

Planning Committee

Thomas Spiegel, MD, MBA, MS, FACEP
Vice President and Health System Chief Quality Officer
Associate Professor of Medicine
University of Chicago Medicine 

Sharon Markman, MHA
Executive Director, Clinical Excellence, Innovation and Engagement
Director, Center for Healthcare Delivery Science & Innovation
University of Chicago Medicine

Kimisha Cassidy, MS
Senior Project Manager, Center for Healthcare Delivery Science & Innovation
University of Chicago Medicine

Margaret DeKoning, MSN, RN, NE-BC, NPD-BC
Central Education Program Manager
University of Chicago Medicine 

Arth Patel, MHA
Program Director, Office of External Assessment
University of Chicago Medicine

Kim Erwin, MDes
Associate Professor of Healthcare Design and Design Methods
Director, Equitable Healthcare Action Lab
Illinois Institute of Technology Institute of Design

Cynthia Barnard, PhD, MBA, MSJS
Former Vice President, Quality
Northwestern Memorial HealthCare

Credit

Continuing education credit provided

Physician Credit
The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine designates this live activity for a maximum of 6.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Nursing Credit

University of Chicago Medicine is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

Participants who successfully complete the entire activity and complete an evaluation form will earn a maximum of 6.5 contact hours.

Other Participant Credit

Other participants will receive a Certificate of Participation. For information on the applicability and acceptance of Certificates of Participation for educational activities certified for a maximum of AMA PRA Category 6.5 Credits™ from organizations accredited by the ACCME, please consult your professional licensing board.

Registration Open until June 30th

For questions, please contact kimisha.cassidy@uchicagomedicine.org