Noted Public Speaker

Steven M. Defossez, MD, EMHL, CPE,

  • Vice President, Clinical Integration, Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association

  • Blogger/Webmaster Defosays.com

  • Medical Advisor to Industry

  • Board Member

A seasoned healthcare leader, Dr. Defossez has more than 35 years of hospital, healthcare and association experience. His work enhances collaboration and helps facilitate the transitions necessary to meet key healthcare delivery reform imperatives, with a focus on strategy,  leadership, governance, conflict resolution and physician relationships. A strong patient advocate, he continues to practice radiology, reading MRI one day per week.

Steve serves on numerous advisory boards and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative.

Dr. Defossez is passionate about the benefits of a transformed delivery system. In December 2014, he finished an executive master’s in healthcare leadership at Brown University. He received his BA and MD from Tufts University before his surgical internship at Duke University, and his Radiology residency and MRI fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Selected Recent Public Speaking Engagements:

  • Racism, Sexism, Staffing and Clinician Burnout, Virginia Community Healthcare Association Annual Meeting, September 28, 2022
  • EHR Optimization and the Physician Burnout Factor, Healthcare Innovation’s Northeast Summit, June 17, 2022, Boston, MA
  • Integrating Opioid Stewardship in Hospitals/Health Systems, Ohio Hospital Association Annual Meeting and Education Summit, June 15, 2022
  • Clinician Burnout: Lessons from a Provider Burden Survey, Cenevia HIT and Quality Forum, September 16, 2021
  • Corvus Insurance Leadership Webinar: Living in the Age of COVID-19: 2021 and Beyond
  • Cenevia Business Services, April 27, 2020,  COVID-19: Lessons Learned Regarding Provider Burden. Webinar
  • Southern California HIT Summit,  February 4, 2020, San Diego, Our Role in Combating the Opioid Crisis, Lessons from Massachusetts
  • Cenevia Business Services, January 29,2020, Utilization of Patient Apps in Health Promotion. Webinar
  • Keynote: Community Care Network of Virginia Health Information Technology and Quality Forum, November 8, 2019, Richmond Virginia, Nationwide  Efforts to Prevent Provider Burnout
  • Keynote: HCCA Boston Regional Healthcare Compliance Conference,  September 6, 2019, Provider / Staff Burnout – How to Avoid
  • Keynote: Southern Arizona Opioid Misuse Prevention Symposium, September 28, 2018, Tucson AZ, Introduction to Opioid Use Disorder as a Disease, and You Can Help
  • Keynote: West Coast C-Suite Exclusive meeting: CFO/COO/CMO/CNO/CQO/CHRO, March 22, 2018, Los Angeles, Combating the Opioid Crisis, Lessons from the East
  • Keynote: New England CNO and Clinical Leaders Network meeting, April 27, 2018, Newport, Rhode Island, Our Role in Combating the Opioid Crisis
  • Keynote: Vizient Mid-Atlantic Joint Networks meeting of the CFOs and COO’s, May, 2018, Philadelphia, Combating the Opioid Crisis: Lessons from the Massachusetts health and Hospital Association.
  • MA Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Errors, Dec ’17. Patient Safety Organizations, Just the Facts
  • Keynote: Community Care Network of Virginia, HIT and Quality Forum, Nov ’17. Physician Engagement: Key Issues Related to Clinical Excellence.
  • Keynote, Gulf States Executive Leadership Conference, New Orleans, LA, October, 2017: Our Role in Combating the Opioid Crisis
  • Nat Conf Addiction Disorders, Balt MD. Aug ’17. Our Role in Combating the Opioid Crisis: Lessons from the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association
  • Webinar, Aug ’17 What Wikipedia Can’t Tell You About Opioid Initiatives and Weaning
  • UMass Mem Com Hosp Bd of Trustees, June ’17. Opioid Crisis: System Response
  • MHA June ’17. The Silent Crisis of Physician Burnout: What We Can Do About It
  • State Hosp Assoc Phys Execs, Washington DC May ’17. Physician Burnout
  • Pima Med Society, Tucson AZ. Apr ’17. Confronting the Opioid Crisis in Arizona
  • Tucson Medical Center, Apr ’17. Our Role in Managing the Opioid Crisis in Arizona
  • MHA, Jan ’17 Panel Discussion: MACRA, MIPS and Bundled Payments
  • MHQP, Jan ’17. MHA and MMS Initiatives to Address Opioid Crisis
  • Maharaj Sawan Singh Charitable Hospital, Beas India Dec ’16. MRI Orthopedic Update: 3T versus 1.5T MRI
  • UMass HealthAlliance Hospital, Dec ’16. Opioid Epidemic: An Action plan
  • Suffolk University, MHA and MBA, Nov ’16. Physician Engagement
  • Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, Nov ’16 Opioid Epidemic: Q & A
  • Vizient West Coast Board, Redondo CA, Nov ’16 Opioid Epidemic: How You Can Help
  • MA Coalition, May ’16 State of the State: Reducing Readmissions in Massachusetts
  • AHA National Webinar, Mar ’16. Combating the Opioid Crisis: Massachusetts’ Path to Action
  • Brown Univ. School of Public Health, Feb ’16. Healthcare Policy, Politics and Economics
  • Tufts Univ, Feb 4, ’16. Healthcare Policy, Politics and Economics in Action
  • Suffolk Univ, Healthcare Strategic Management Nov ’15 Healthcare Economics; Policy verses Politics
  • Maharaj Sawan Singh Charitable Hospital, Beas India, Oct ’15. MRI update in Neuroradiology and Orthopedics
  • Tufts Univ, Sept ’15. Healthcare Policy in the Real World

Testimonials:

“I received an overwhelming amount of emails and messages from our management group about how useful they found the talk to be. Several employees expressed how nice it was for someone to explain the virus and vaccinations in an easy to understand manner. Thank you very much for all the hard work and effort that went into the presentation. It was well appreciated by our management team.”  -Stacey Richey, Vice President, People, Corvus Insurance

“Steve was the healthcare equivalent of a rock star.”
-Richard H. Gregg, MA, MBA, Director of Programs in Healthcare Administration, Chair of the Healthcare Administration Department, Sawyer Business School, Suffolk University

“Your keynote at our Health IT and Quality Forum exceeded conference planners’ expectations. It was so relevant. We had another meeting of the Med Management committee later in the day and the conversation was about 80% of what they heard from your talk.
We will certainly invite you to return!”
-Rene Cabral-Daniels, CEO, Community Care Network of Virginia

“I can’t thank you enough for being with us today. We received very high praise for bringing your presentation to our CEOs. I really appreciated the passion that came across in your remarks!”
-Bill Senneff, FACHE, President, Vizient Gulf States Inc.

“Not only was your lecture was one of the best lectures I have attended, but the brief discussion that I had with you afterward helped me formulate a viable business strategy.”
-Anu Gupte, MHA, Project Manager at Brigham and Women’s Physician Organization

“Steve did a fantastic job! His presentation was clear, compelling and extremely informative.”
– Douglas S. Brown, President, UMass Memorial Community Hospitals and Chief Administrative Officer UMass Memorial Health Care

Prior to joining MHA, Dr. Defossez:

Steve was  a multi-term Medical Staff President, at Northeast Hospital Corporation where he led physician engagement during the Northeast Health System’s merger with Lahey Health. This was so successful, he was selected as a founding Trustee of the new parent company, Lahey Health. As a board member of Lahey Health, Northeast Health System and Northeast Hospital Corporation, he was a member of the quality, finance and investment committees.

Steve was President of MRI Radiologists of the North Shore and served as the long term MRI Medical Director at Beverly Hospital and North Shore Magnetic Imaging Center.

He is a sought after speaker on matters of health policy, combating the opioid epidemic, physician engagement, physician burnout, public health and leadership in Massachusetts and nationally. Originally from Chicago, Dr. Defossez currently resides in Boxford Massachusetts and has four children.