Dr. Iona Thraen holds a PhD in Medical Informatics from the College of Medicine, University of Utah; sixty hours of graduate doctoral social work credits from the College of Social Work, University of Utah; thirty hours of graduate training in economics (Fordham University); a master’s degree in social work (University of Nebraska); and an undergraduate degree in Psychology with a minor in Theology (Creighton University) Dr. Thraen currently holds an appointment as adjunct assistant professor in the Dept of Biomedical Informatics and adjunct instructor with the Department of Operations and Information Systems, both with the University of Utah.

Dr. Thraen has close to 30 years of part-time teaching experience as an adjunct professor and spent close to 15 years as Chair of the Institutional Review Board with the State of Utah, Department of Health. Additionally, Dr. Thraen provided 8 years of Leadership and Quality Improvement as a political appointee under the Leavitt administration to the regulatory division of the Utah Department of Health, managed a $13 million budget, 4 bureaus and 150 employees.

Dr. Thraen is currently the Director of Patient Safety for the University of Utah Healthcare System (consisting of 5 hospitals, 11 Community Health Care Centers, 1700 member Medical Group, six schools and colleges and numerous institutes and centers). In this role, Dr. Thraen sets the strategic direction for the department to move from Patient Safety 1.0 to Patient Safety 2.0; manages oversight of personnel, budget, and policy setting; leads patient safety initiatives across the organization in collaboration with Value Engineering, System’s Quality, and Nursing Quality; teaches patient safety content to Master of Health Administration Students; and participates in patient safety related research and development. Dr. Thraen has been involved in numerous research activities resulting in multiple publications, acknowledgements, and grants.

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