Clifford Y. Ko

Clifford Y. Ko, MD, MS, MSHA, FACS is one of the leading surgical health services researchers investigating quality measurement, process improvement and reliability.

He is presently director of research and patient care at the American College of Surgeons, where he oversees quality improvement programs such as the bariatric surgery and cancer accreditation programs, the trauma and pediatric surgery verification programs and the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program. Clinically, his practice focuses on colorectal cancer, and he serves as professor of health services at the UCLA School of Public Health. Current initiatives for Dr. Ko include overseeing the writing of the ACS quality manual and the development of a geriatric surgery quality program.

Dr. Ko has received millions of dollars in grant funding to study quality of care from multiple national agencies, including National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Cancer Society. In addition to advising national and international efforts in surgical quality for organizations such as the Institute of Medicine and the World Health Organization, he has published more than 275 manuscripts and written more than 20 book chapters.