Michael G. Knight, MD, MSHP, is adding a new role to his roster of responsibilities: associate chief quality and population health officer with the George Washington University (GW) Medical Faculty Associates (MFA). Currently, Knight serves as the MFA patient safety officer and is a primary care and obesity medicine physician in the GW MFA Division of General Internal Medicine. He also serves as an assistant professor of medicine at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS).
In his new position, Knight will direct the development, implementation, and maintenance of quality and patient safety initiatives to improve patient health outcomes and mitigate preventable patient harm. He also will serve as the head of the Department of Health Care Delivery Transformation, with three areas of focus: quality and population health, patient safety, and the primary care service line.
“I’m thrilled to have this opportunity to prioritize our quality of care and ensure that our patients’ safety remains our top concern,” said Knight. “The GW MFA is committed to continued improvement and transformation, and I know our faculty and staff share my commitment to lifting our standards of care to new heights.”
Knight has long been dedicated to quality improvement and patient safety. He has conducted quality and patient safety-focused research at Weill Cornell Medical Center and the University of Pennsylvania. At GW, he has served as the chair of the GW MFA Patient Safety Committee for the last four years. In addition, as part of the GW Internal Medicine Residency Program, he is an instructor in the quality improvement curriculum, and he serves as the course director for patients, populations, and systems 2 (PPS 2) for first-year medical students at GW SMHS.
Knight earned his medical degree, with special qualifications in biomedical research, from the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University. He completed his residency in internal medicine at New York Presbyterian – Weill Cornell Medical Center, where he received special training in obesity medicine. Knight is board certified in internal medicine and obesity medicine.
In addition to his clinical and research work, Knight is a prolific speaker on obesity and its impact on health. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Obesity Medicine and serves in the leadership of the National Medical Association (NMA), the American Medical Association, and the American College of Physicians, among other organizations. He has also garnered a number of awards, including the Top 40 Under 40 Leaders in Health Award by the National Minority Quality Forum and the Top Healthcare Professionals Under 40 Award by NMA. In 2020, Washingtonian magazine named him a Top Doctor.
