Biography
Rama Mwenesi Musalia is a health systems engineer, implementation scientist, and patient safety expert interested in advancing the ways in which health systems 1) continuously improve their complex care delivery processes, and 2) reduce the recurrence of serious preventable errors associated with care delivery.
Prior to joining the medical school’s faculty, Dr. Musalia was responsible for leading the design, implementation, and management of Michigan Medicine’s Perioperative Services Learning Health Systems infrastructure for Quality, Safety, & Innovation. He earned his PhD in Health Infrastructures & Learning Systems from the Department of Learning Health Sciences in 2022 and was awarded the University of Michigan’s “Student of the Year” honor for his contributions and impact as a graduate and professional student.
Dr. Musalia is also an Adjunct Faculty in the School of Nursing’s Department of Systems, Populations & Leadership, a member of UM’s Institute for Healthcare Policy & Innovation, and the Center for Global Health Equity. Outside of research, he serves as the proud Head Coach of the nationally ranked University of Michigan Men’s & Women’s Boxing Team and is engaged in several development initiatives across the United States and in his home country of Kenya.
Areas of Interest
Overview
Currently, Dr. Mwenesi Musalia’s research is focused on 1) building capacity for scalable and equitable patient safety systems across local and global healthcare care settings, and 2) designing and testing multi-level implementation strategies to improve engagement in patient safety.
Research and scholarly interests: Implementation Science in Surgery, Learning Health Systems Infrastructures for Patient Safety, Improving Incident Reporting, Perioperative Leadership & Management, Audit & Feedback Intervention Co-Design, Global Surgery.
Subject-matter expertise: Implementation science, learning health systems strategy design, healthcare quality & safety, continuous improvement methods, industrial & operations management engineering, high-reliability-organization training and facilitation.
Publications
Training Curriculum, Skills, and Competencies for Global Health Leaders: Good Practices and Lessons Learned. Schleiff MJ, Mburugu PM, Cape J, Mwenesi R, Sirili N, Tackett S, Urassa DP, Hansoti B, Mashalla Y. Ann Glob Health. 2021 Jul 12;87(1):64. doi: 10.5334/aogh.3212. eCollection 2021. PMID: 34307067 Free PMC article.
A model for in situ plan of care for a critically unstable pediatric patient following I-131 MIBG infusion. Flori HR, Mwenesi R, Scott A, Conrad CM, Quinn JA, Ostwani W, Fischer KW, Yanik GA. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2020 Nov;67(11):e28665. doi: 10.1002/pbc.28665. Epub 2020 Aug 22. PMID: 32827342
Incorporating nurse absenteeism into staffing with demand uncertainty. Maass KL, Liu B, Daskin MS, Duck M, Wang Z, Mwenesi R, Schapiro H. Health Care Manag Sci. 2017 Mar;20(1):141-155. doi: 10.1007/s10729-015-9345-z. Epub 2015 Oct 15. PMID: 26471373
