Bio
David B. Larson, MD, MBA, is Professor of Radiology (Pediatric Radiology) in the Department of Radiology at Stanford University. His career is focused on managing and improving complex sociotechnical healthcare systems to drive continuous operational improvement for the benefit of patients and clinicians. His research and leadership activities span the sociotechnical spectrum, from the development of process control systems that optimize CT radiation dose to transitioning the field of radiology from "peer review" toward "peer learning" to foster a more collaborative and constructive work environment.
He has founded and directed numerous improvement programs at Stanford and beyond, including Stanford’s Realizing Improvement through Team Empowerment (RITE) program, the Clinical Effectiveness Leadership Training (CELT) (program co-founder), Stanford Medicine's Improvement Capability Development Program (ICDP), and the Stanford Medicine Center for Improvement's (SMCI's) Advanced Course in Improvement Science (ACIS). He is also the founder and co-director of the American College of Radiology's (ACR's) Learning Network, its various Improvement Collaboratives, and the ImPower improvement training and project support program.
Dr. Larson served for over 10 years in various senior leadership roles in the Stanford Department of Radiology, including Associate Chair for Performance Improvement, Vice Chair for Education and Clinical Operations, Executive Vice Chair, and Acting Chair. He currently serves as the Director of the Stanford Radiology AI Development and Evaluation (AIDE) Lab. He also serves as the Medical Director of Performance Improvement at Stanford Health Care.
Dr. Larson has applied his experience to advance the thinking and application of systematic improvement methods in the field of radiology. He is the founder and program chair for the annual Radiology Improvement Summit held annually at Stanford, which began in 2016. He serves on the Board of Trustees of the American Board of Radiology, overseeing quality and safety, and recently completed a 6-year term on the Board of Chancellors for the American College of Radiology as the chair of the ACR's Commission on Quality and Safety. He currently serves as the Vice President of the American College of Radiology.
Prior to his position at Stanford, Dr. Larson was the Janet L. Strife Chair for Quality and Safety in Radiology and a faculty member of the James M. Anderson Center for Health Systems Excellence at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio. He holds MD and MBA degrees from Yale University and completed his pediatric internship and radiology residency and fellowship at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, Colorado. Dr. Larson practices clinically at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford.
