Arthur Kanowitz, MD appointed Chairman of the Airway Safety Taskforce for the Patient Safety Movement Foundation (PSMF). PSMF is a global non-profit working with leading medical experts around the world to eliminate preventable patient deaths in hospitals. In this role, Dr. Kanowitz will lead the Airway Safety Taskforce’s efforts to increase awareness of airway safety incidences and to encourage all hospitals to implement evidence-based Actionable Patient Safety Solutions.


Securisyn Medical, LLC, dedicated to inspiring the world to collaborate to make airway management safer, today announced the appointment of Arthur Kanowitz, MD, as Chairman of the Airway Safety Taskforce for the Patient Safety Movement Foundation. The Patient Safety Movement Foundation is a global non-profit working with leading medical experts around the world to eliminate preventable patient deaths in hospitals. In this role, Dr. Kanowitz will lead the Airway Safety Taskforce’s efforts to increase awareness of airway safety incidences and to encourage all hospitals to implement evidence-based Actionable Patient Safety Solutions (APSS) that have been developed to highlight best practices used to decrease the incidence, associated complications and preventable deaths of airway management.

"We are excited to welcome Dr. Kanowitz," said Joe Kiani, Chairman and Founder of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation. "Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States - behind heart disease and cancer. We can no longer hope for zero preventable patient deaths; we must ask our hospitals to plan for zero. By bringing together experts in the field, like Dr. Kanowitz, we are empowering hospitals to make patient safety a priority and implement free resources proven to eliminate preventable harm.”

Dr. Kanowitz is currently the co-founder of a medical device company focused on eliminating all preventable deaths related to airway management. An Emergency Physician, and formerly the Medical Director for the Colorado State Emergency Medical and Trauma Services for Colorado’s Department of Public Health and Environment, Dr. Kanowitz has been involved in emergency medicine and patient safety for over 40 years.

“In 2004, I became aware of how common and costly unplanned extubation -the accidental and unintended removal of a patient’s life-sustaining breathing tube, can be,” said Dr. Kanowitz. “I have spent the last 14 years researching the problem, working on a solution and collaborating with patient safety organizations to increase awareness of this problem.”

In the intensive care unit (ICU) where patients are mechanically-ventilated, the incidence of unplanned extubation is greater than 120,000 times a year in the US alone and leads to 33,000 preventable deaths yearly. (1,2,3,4) Dr. Kanowitz said, “These are preventable deaths and must be eliminated. I am honored to be working with the Patient Safety Movement Foundation to eliminate these deaths.”

Dr. Kanowitz assumes his position at the Patient Safety Movement Foundation effective immediately.

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