Alyson Cooper Email and Phone Number

The Immersive Design Systems at Boston Children's Hospital provides transformative experiences to optimize healthcare. Through innovative and immersive approaches, the Program enhances performance, improves teamwork, and tests processes and environments.As the Director of Operations, I optimized the program while building connectivity within the hospital community. I led projects that brought together multiple departments and leveraged program expertise in immersive technologies, engineering, design thinking, and adult learning-based instructional design to produces the greatest possible impact on patient care.During my tenure, the program grew by over 30%, thoughtfully rebranded, facilitated countless improvements across the hospital, and captured those successes to further promote growth and donor engagement.

As a Program Manager for the Clinical Pathways Program, I oversaw a team of project coordinators and analysts focused on clinical effectiveness and decision support projects. To evolve the program, I developed strategy, collaborated with other functional areas throughout the hospital, and enhanced visibility of successes with stakeholders.

I led the design and evaluation of clinical pathways in departments across Boston Children's Hospital. I employed a data-driven approach, using analysis to regularly test and improve upon the standard of care, and contributing to a continuous learning community within the hospital. Clinical Pathways not only drove outcomes improvement, but also generated positive cost savings, responding to a growing need to eliminate waste in healthcare. Clinical pathways at Boston Children's Hospital have, for example, reduced length of stay for critical asthma patients by 33%, decreased the cost of care for wrist fractures by 46%, and improved risk stratification guidelines for testing allergy patients.

I worked for the Office of Inspector General (OIG) that oversees the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS administers programs that ensure the health and well-being of the American public, including Medicare, Medicaid, and the Food and Drug Administration. With HHS’s budget of $1 trillion, the OIG oversees 26 cents of every Federal dollar spent. I contributed to the OIG’s oversight by evaluating HHS programs and recommending ways to increase efficiency, enhance effectiveness, and decrease susceptibility to fraud, waste, and abuse. As a project leader and team member I developed expertise in subject areas, designed evaluation methodologies, interpreted legal regulations, collected qualitative and quantitative data, carried out rigorous data analyses, presented findings to stakeholders, and wrote comprehensive reports. Those evaluations have helped to reduce duplication of federal quality improvement programs and increase the transparency of physician ownership. My evaluations factored into the OIG’s return on investment of approximately $8 to every $1 spent.