Key Personnel

Dr. Hitinder S. Gurm is a Professor of Internal Medicine Associate, and Chief Clinical Officer of the Cardiovascular/Neuro sub-segment at Michigan Medicine. He leads the Blue Cross Blue Shield Cardiovascular Consortium (BMC2) and is the project director of BMC2-PCI, a multi-center, quality improvement registry funded by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, designed to improve quality of care and outcomes for patients who undergo percutaneous coronary interventions in the state of Michigan. Hitinder is a graduate of Christian Medical College, Ludhiana, India. He did his residency in Internal medicine followed by fellowship in Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. His research interests include carotid interventions, contrast induced nephropathy, quality improvement and outcomes assessment, and development of novel devices for endovascular interventions. He has published more than 200 original articles and book chapters, and has been named as an inventor on 4 patents. He is the recipient of the Michigan Health & Hospital Association’s Patient Safety & Quality Leadership Award for 2016 and has been elected to the American Society for Clinical investigation (ASCI).  Dr Gurm was selected as one of 50 experts leading the field of patient safety in 2018 by Becker Hospital Review.
 

Dr. Henke is a Leland Ira Doan Professor of Surgery, operating both at the University of Michigan and the Veteran's Administration Hospital. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 1988 and from the University Of Wisconsin School Of Medicine in 1992. He did his General Surgery residency at the University of Louisville. He joined the University of Michigan for his Vascular Surgery fellowship, and graduated to join the faculty in 2000. His clinical and research focus is on lower extremity arterial, venous, and vascular medicine patient issues. He also acts as the Associate Chair for Research in the Department of Surgery. Dr. Henke is the Project Director of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Cardiovascular Consortium - Vascular Surgery initiative (BMC2). This is a multi-center, multi-disciplinary outcomes registry that represents a regional collaborative effort to assess and improve the quality of care and the outcomes of patients with cerebrovascular or peripheral vascular disease who undergo open bypass revascularization, abdominal aneurysm repair, carotid endarterectomy, or carotid stenting.

Ms. Annemarie Forrest is the Program Manager for the BMC2 Collaborative. BMC2-PCI is a multi-center, quality improvement registry supported by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, designed to improve quality of care and outcomes for patients who undergo percutaneous coronary interventions. The BMC2 Vascular Surgery Initiative is a multi-center, multi-disciplinary outcomes registry that represents a regional collaborative effort to assess and improve the quality of care and the outcomes of patients with cerebrovascular or peripheral vascular disease who undergo open bypass revascularization, abdominal aneurysm repair, carotid endarterectomy, or carotid stenting. Michigan TAVR is a structural heart quality improvement initiative operated in collaboration with the Michigan Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons. Annemarie has 15+ years of extensive management experience in a variety of clinical research and academic health care settings. She was previously the Director of Projects at the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative, a public-private partnership co-founded by Duke University and the FDA working to improve the quality and efficiency of clinical trials. Annemarie has also served as the Field Clinical Director for a medical device company investigating novel acute stroke therapies, a Research Nurse Specialist at the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), and the director of a statewide (Illinois) stroke registry. She has previously coordinated both cardiovascular and neurological trials at academic medical centers in Michigan, Illinois, and Washington, DC. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan School of Nursing, and has an MS in Community Health Nursing and an MPH in Community Health Sciences from the University of Illinois-Chicago.