Lance S. Patak, MD, MBA, CPHQ

As a pediatric anesthesiologist, I specialize in caring for children with complex medical and surgical needs. My clinical interests include difficult airway management, perioperative respiratory risk reduction, regional anesthesia, vascular access, neonatal and fetal anesthesia, perioperative ultrasound, and systems-based approaches to improving patient safety and outcomes. I strive to create calm, individualized, and highly coordinated care experiences for children and families, especially during stressful or high-risk situations. I believe the safest and best care comes from combining technical excellence with thoughtful communication, teamwork, and systems designed to prevent harm before it occurs.

My journey in healthcare began as a pediatric and critical care nurse, where I developed a deep appreciation for the resilience of children and the importance of compassionate, team-based care. Working closely with critically ill children and families inspired me to pursue medicine and ultimately pediatric anesthesiology—a field that combines physiology, procedural skill, crisis management, communication, and systems thinking. I was particularly drawn to the opportunity to improve not only individual patient care, but also the broader systems that influence safety and outcomes for children.

Throughout my career, I’ve been recognized for innovation and patient safety initiatives across multiple pediatric hospitals, including the Peter J. Cohen Research Award from the University of Michigan and national leadership roles within Wake Up Safe. My work in patient communication technology contributed to national patient communication standards developed with The Joint Commission. My research focuses on using clinical data, informatics and systems engineering to improve pediatric perioperative outcomes and prevent avoidable harm. I am especially interested in identifying practice variation, developing automated methods for adverse event detection, and building scalable learning health systems capable of rapidly translating best practices into clinical care.

Outside of medicine, being the best, most loving, present and fun dad to my family always comes first. I enjoy innovation, design, technology development, mentoring and global medical outreach, including pediatric surgical mission work in Cambodia, Guatemala, Myanmar and China. Some of my favorite hobbies are tennis and scuba diving.