Jeffrey B. Cooper, Ph.D. is Director of Biomedical Engineering for the Partners HealthCare System, Inc. and Associate Professor of Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School. He began his career in research and development with the Bioengineering Unit in the Department of Anesthesia at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1972, leading the team that conducted seminal studies of critical incidents and human error in anesthesia. During the same time, he was leading a team that developed one of the first microprocessor-based medical technologies, the Boston Anesthesia System, aimed at integrating functions for the ultimate purpose of reducing human and system errors. Both of these efforts have catalyzed changes in anesthesia practice in the ensuing years.

Dr. Cooper is also the founder and Executive Director of the Boston Center for Medical Simulation, which is dedicated to the use of simulation in healthcare as a means to improve the process of education and training and to avoid risk to patients.

Dr. Cooper was a lead member of the group that created the first safety-related standards for anesthesia, equivalent versions of which have since been adopted in the US and throughout the world. He organized the 1984 International Symposium for Prevention of Anesthesia Mortality and Morbidity, from which was spawned the idea for the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation. Dr. Cooper is a co-founder of the APSF, serving continuously on its Executive Committee and from 1987-00 Chairman of it Committee on Scientific Evaluation. The stimulus of that research funding has led to over 200 applications for safety-related research and one of the few sources of funding for studies of human performance and safety in a medical discipline. Dr. Cooper is the Chair of the Research Program of the National Patient Safety Foundation, and is engaged in creating new opportunities for support of research in patient safety.