Management Team

Eugene Litvak, PhD

is President and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Optimization. He is also an Adjunct Professor in Operations Management in the Department of Health Policy & Management at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), where he teaches the course “Operations Management in Service Delivery Organizations”. Prior to his current position he was a co-founder (with Michael C. Long, MD) and director of the Program for the Management of Variability in Health Care Delivery at the Boston University (BU) Health Policy Institute and a Professor at the BU School of Management. Before joining Boston University Dr. Litvak was a faculty member at the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. Dr. Litvak arrived in the U.S. in 1988, and joined HSPH in 1990 after being chief of the Operations Management Group at the Computing Center in Kiev, Ukraine.

His research interests include operations management in health care delivery organizations, cost-effective medical decision-making, screening for HIV and other infectious diseases, and operations research. Professor Litvak is an author of more than 60 publications in these areas. He was the leading author of the innovative cost-effective protocols in screening for HIV and hepatitis, which reduce the cost of screening by a factor of 5 to 10 while simultaneously reducing errors by a factor of 20 to 40. These protocols have been positively evaluated by FDA, NIH and CDC, were the subject of a large-scale international trial supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development as well as Chiron and Roche pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Litvak served as a Principal Investigator from the U.S. for this trial.

Since 1995 he has led the development and practical application of innovative approaches for managing patient flow variability (introduced by him and Dr. Long) for cost reduction and quality improvement in health care delivery systems. Application of these approaches has resulted in significant quality improvement and multimillion dollar improvements in the margins for every hospital that has applied them. Professor Litvak was the Principal Investigator in the "Emergency Room Diversion Study" supported by the grant from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. He was a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee “The Future of Emergency Care in the United States Health System“. Currently he is a member of the Institute of Medicine committee: The Learning Health Care System in America. He is a member of the "National Advisory Committee to the American Hospital Association for Improving Quality, Patient Safety and Performance" and also Principal Investigator in many hospital operations improvement projects. Dr. Litvak frequently presents as an invited lecturer at many national and international meetings. He also serves as a consultant on operations improvement to several major hospitals and is a senior faculty of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

Brad Prenney, MS, MPA

is Chief Operating Officer of the Institute for Healthcare Optimization. He oversees all operational and administrative functions of the Institute. He also provides advice and support to the CEO and senior management team on strategic, policy, research and program development issues related to the mission and goals of the Institute. Prior to his current position, he served as Deputy Director of the Program for Management of Variability in Healthcare Delivery (MVP) at Boston University where he managed and directed the full range of Program activities including service/consulting engagements, grants, research, policy development and education and training.

Prior to joining the MVP in 2004, Brad spent twenty years in public service with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH). During that time he directed the State’s Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. He coordinated the passage and implementation of two major set of changes to the Massachusetts Lead Poisoning statutes and regulations and was responsible for establishing the private and public sector infrastructure required to serve a dramatic increase in lead poisoning prevention activities and services. He provided expert technical, program and policy advice to federal agencies on issues of lead poisoning prevention including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Housing and Urban Development and National Institute for Standards and Technology. Under his leadership, the Program received the first National Model Program Award from the U.S. CDC. During his tenure at MDPH, he also served as Deputy Director of the Bureau of Health Quality Management where he oversaw Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and other programs. He coordinated passage of legislation that modernized the state’s EMS laws (EMS 2000) and led the Department’s efforts at addressing Emergency Department overcrowding and ambulance diversion.

His undergraduate degree is from Boston College. He received a Master of Science degree from the University of Massachusetts, School of Public Health with a concentration in epidemiology and biostatistics and Master in Public Administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

Michael C. Long, MD

is Senior Fellow and Clinical Consultant with the Institute for Healthcare Optimization. Dr. Long graduated in 1965 from MIT with honors in Life Sciences and from Harvard Medical School with honors in 1969. After an internship in Surgery at the University of Colorado Medical Center and residency in Anesthesiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Long was Chief of Anesthesia at US Kirk Army hospital during the Vietnam conflict. He returned to the MGH in 1974 and was on staff in the Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care for more than 27 years. He served the MGH in a number of key clinical and administrative positions within the Anesthesiology department and Operating Room administration. From 1995 to 2001, he served as Chairman of Operations Improvement for the Operating Services and from 1997 to 2001 as Deputy Director of Operating Services for Operations Improvement and Information Systems. He was instrumental in designing and implementing a new state-of-the-art OR scheduling and information system at the MGH.

Since 1995, Dr. Long has collaborated with Dr. Eugene Litvak in the development and practical application of an innovative approach to patient flow variability management for cost reduction and quality improvement in health care delivery systems. This approach has been described in their publication "Cost and Quality Under Managed Care: Irreconcilable Differences?" in the American Journal of Managed Care 2000; v.6, No.3, pp.305-312. Application of patient flow variability management principles in numerous hospitals has resulted in improvements in patient flow and access to care in the Operating Rooms, Emergency Department, Intensive Care Units and other inpatient care areas. In 2001, Dr Long and Dr Litvak founded the Program for the Management of Variability in Health Care Delivery at the Boston University Health Policy Institute. In 2009 Dr Long joined Dr. Litvak and colleagues to form the Institute for Healthcare Optimization. Dr Long currently continues his active participation as Senior Fellow and clinical consultant as an integral team member at the Institute.

Sandeep Green Vaswani, MBA

is Senior Vice President with the Institute for Healthcare Optimization. In this role, Sandeep is responsible for new program development, management of hospital flow improvement initiatives, and oversight of analytics and information technology. Sandeep has wide ranging experience in hospital business strategy, finance, operations and data-driven business management.

Previously, Sandeep served as Director, Analysis & Planning at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston; establishing the department within their Center for Clinical Excellence. In that role, Sandeep served as an advisor to the hospital executive team. He oversaw strategic and business planning, departmental multi-year planning, cost benchmarking, and the development of capacity utilization and projection models. He played a broad role in the development of the hospital’s new cardiovascular center including strategy planning, financial analysis, Board approval process, architectural design and development, and operational planning. Along with his team, Sandeep led the development of models to assess and project the utilization of hospital capacity such as the operating rooms, inpatient beds, emergency room, cath lab, interventional radiology, outpatient clinics, and endoscopy. This initiative led to an institution-wide focus on enhancement of utilization of existing hospital assets.

Prior to Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Sandeep worked in a variety of settings - management consulting with the strategy firm Monitor Company, equity research, investment banking, and manufacturing. Sandeep serves on the Board of Trustees of the Pro-Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston. Sandeep has an undergraduate degree in electronics engineering from Bombay University, and an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University.