Dr. Raj Sethi is the Chair of the Neuroscience Institute, Director of Spine Research, and Director of Complex Spine Surgery at the Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. He is also a clinical associate professor at the University of Washington specializing in health services research in the Program of Health Economics and Outcomes Methodology. Dr. Sethi’s strategic and operational leadership has led the Spine Surgery field in quality improvement, including the development of the Virginia Mason Complex Spine Care Pathway, which was awarded the 2014 Mary L McClinton Patient Safety Award, and the Seattle Spine Team Approach. Innovations that have been recognized by the Whitecloud Award by the SRS for best research paper have included a systems-based approach to perioperative care, screening patients using multidisciplinary indication conferences, and a dual surgeon approach for complex spine surgery. His work on the Seattle Spine Team approach and the use of the Toyota Production System to model safety and appropriateness in spine care has led to the commercial development of Spine Surgery Centers of Excellence with major employers and American purchasers of health care. A Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Sethi attended Harvard Medical School in Boston and completed his training both in the Harvard Combined Orthopaedic Program in Boston and at the University of California at San Francisco.

• Courses: Safety in Spine Surgery Summit
• Website:  https://www.virginiamason.org/rajiv-k-sethi-md