People

Director

Sushila Murthy, MD, MPH

Dr. Murthy is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the Perelman School of Medicine. She is also a senior scholar at the Penn Center for Perioperative Outcomes Research and Transformation (CPORT). She developed a quality improvement initiative to reduce the perioperative administration of medications that were cautioned by the “American Geriatric Society’s Beers Criteria for potentially inappropriate medication use in older adults.” She founded and directs QSIG, with the goal of harnessing the expertise and insights of diverse, on-the-ground anesthesia faculty, residents, and nurse anesthetists to proactively improve safety and quality in perioperative care.

Dr. Murthy received her BSc degree in biomedical computation and honors in feminist studies at Stanford University. She received her MD at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and her MPH at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She completed her anesthesia residency and subsequent health services fellowship Massachusetts General Hospital.

Anesthesia Attendings

Joseph Colao, MD

Dr. Colao is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the Perelman School of Medicine. He received his undergraduate education at Johns Hopkins University and medical degree at the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. He completed anesthesiology residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital and cardiothoracic anesthesiology fellowship at New York Presbyterian Columbia. Since joining the Penn faculty, Dr. Colao has taken on educational positions in the cardiac anesthesia resident rotation and fellowship program. He has been involved in a variety of quality improvement roles at other institutions since he was a medical student and is excited to use that experience toward perioperative initiatives at Penn.

Caoimhe Duffy, MD, MSc, FCAI

Dr. Duffy is Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the Perelman School of Medicine, a senior fellow with the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics and a senior scholar with the Penn Center for perioperative outcomes research and transformation (CPORT). Dr. Duffy holds a Master’s of Science in Human Factors in Patient Safety and is a Certified Professional in Patient Safety with the Institute of Healthcare Improvement. Her research focus area is on human factors engineering and safety science in the perioperative space. Dr. Duffy has engaged in quality improvement and research projects aimed at improving relationships and communication between members of the perioperative care team, including physicians, nurses, surgical technicians, and other support staff. Her current projects include a focus a “Safety-II” thinking and resilience engineering, as well as surgical front of neck access.

Allison Lee, MD

Dr. Lee is Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is the Chief of the Division of Obstetric Anesthesia and the Vice Chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. She has been active in conducting education research involving simulation and serious games. Her clinical research has focused on topics from optimizing labor analgesia to anesthesia for cervical cerclage. One of her most influential studies disrupted the dogma that patients should be routinely tilted left during cesarean delivery. She is Chair of the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology’s (SOAP) Diversity and Inclusion Committee and sits on SOAP’s Board of Directors.

John Nguyen, MD, MBA, FACHE

Sylvie Polksy, MD

Dr. Polsky is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the Perelman School of Medicine. Originally from New York City, Dr. Polsky completed her Bachelor of Science in Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After conducting molecular biology research in HIV pathogenesis at New York University School of Medicine, she pursued a Master’s degree in Physiology and Biophysics at Georgetown University School of Medicine. Dr. Polsky received her medical degree at Wayne State University School of Medicine. She completed her anesthesiology residency and fellowship in regional anesthesiology and acute pain medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Gurmukh Sahota, MD, PhD

Blake Watterworth, MD

Dr. Watterworth continues a passion for safety and quality improvement as a member of QSIG. He has worked on previous review committees and lead various quality improvement initiatives at other institutions. He earned his medical degree from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. He then completed training in Anesthesiology and a fellowship in Pain Medicine at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, MD. He is particularly interested in safety improvement within the perioperative pain control and interventional pain procedural spaces. 

CRNAs

Jenny Kim, CRNA
Mini Mathews, CRNA

Anesthesia Residents

Jack Berger, MD

Dr. Jack Berger is a PGY4 in the UPHS Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care. He grew up in St. Louis, MO, and was inspired by the impact of the city's local healthcare systems and providers to pursue a career in medicine. While earning an economics degree as an undergraduate student he developed a fascination with decision-making and behavioral economics and their applications to healthcare systems and operations. Committed to enhancing healthcare outcomes from patient to systems levels, Jack aspires to maintain expertise across clinical medicine, healthcare operations, and organizational leadership. He is thrilled to contribute to quality and safety initiatives as part of QSIG; he also serves as the department's Chief Resident of Quality Improvement and Patient Safety and is a member of the interdepartmental Healthcare Leadership in Quality track. When not in the hospital, Jack enjoys playing ice hockey, exploring coffee shops, and collecting vinyl records. 

Dan Casey, DO, MPH

Dr. Casey completed his undergraduate studies at Brown University where he played varsity football and graduated with an engineering degree. After receiving a pre-health post-baccalaureate certificate from the University of Pennsylvania, he attended the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, graduating with a combined medical degree and master's in public health from the Jefferson College of Population Health. He will graduate from the University of Pennsylvania's anesthesiology residency in 2025 and plans to pursue a fellowship in cardiac anesthesiology, thereafter. During residency, Dan will complete the Healthcare Leadership in Quality track program. Through this experience and participation in the Quality and Safety Implementation Group he hopes to build the foundations of a career that aims to improve the outcomes of his individual patients and the broader surgical population. 

Emily Mapelli, MD