Dr. Steve Defossez

Steve Defossez Speaker Biography

Steven Defossez, MD, EMHL, CPE is both Principal at DefoSays Consulting LLC and the V.P., Clinical Integration at the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association (MHA) where he focuses on Physician engagement, strategic leadership, education and policy initiatives which facilitate MHA members’ transitions in meeting key health delivery reform imperatives. Steve also interviews approximately 50 physician healthcare leaders across MA each year, related to clinical issues, quality improvement, patient safety, public health, and health information technology.

Steve currently serves as Co-chair of the statewide Massachusetts Medical Society-Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association Joint Task Force on Physician Burnout. Steve recently coauthored

1. A Crisis in Health Care: A Call to Action on Physician Burnout, a collaboration between MHA, MMS, the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and the Harvard Global Institute, and
2. Changing the EHR from a Liability to an Asset to Reduce Physician Burnout, a collaboration between MHA, MMS and Reliant Medical

Steve served on MHA’s Substance Use Disorder Prevention and Treatment Task Force as well as the Massachusetts Medical Society’s Task Force on Opioid Therapy and Physician Communication. Steve coauthored the publication: Inpatient Opioid Misuse Prevention, a Comprehensive Guide for Patient Management with Regards to Opioid Misuse.

Steve serves on the Massachusetts Medical Society’s Committee on Preparedness. A strong patient advocate, he continues to practice MRI part-time.

Prior to joining MHA, Steve was a multi-term Medical Staff President at Northeast Hospital Corporation where he led physician engagement during the Northeast Health System’s merger with Lahey Health. This was so successful, he was selected as a founding Trustee of the new parent company, Lahey Health. Steve also served as the long-term President of MRI Radiologists of the North Shore and a trustee of several nonprofit boards including the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative.

In December 2014 he finished an Executive Master’s in Healthcare Leadership at Brown University. He received his BA and MD from Tufts University before a surgical internship at Duke University Medical Center. He subsequently completed a Radiology residency and MRI fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Steve is a sought-after national speaker on matters of health policy, combating the opioid epidemic, physician engagement, clinician burnout, alternative payment systems and combatting the COVID-19 pandemic.