Michael Cohen is president of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), a non-profit healthcare organization that operates the voluntary and confidential ISMP Medication Error Reporting Program. Through ISMP MERP medical professionals and consumers learn about the causes of medication errors. Error-reduction strategies are shared with the healthcare community, policy makers, and the public.

He serves as vice chair of the Patient Safety Advisory Group for The Joint Commission and a member of the National Quality Forum Committee on Safe Practices for Better Healthcare. He served recently as a member of the Committee on Identifying and Preventing Medication Errors for the Institute of Medicine and is a consultant for FDA for its Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Panel.

In 2005 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. In 2008 he became the 2008 recipient of the John Eisenberg Award for Patient Safety given jointly by The Joint Commission and the National Quality Forum.

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