Selected as Modern Healthcares 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare of 2009 and Fellow of the American Hospital Association Patient Safety Leadership Training,  Ilene Corina is a nationally recognized advocate for patient safety. She is the president and founder of PULSE of New York, a grassroots patient safety advocacy group that was formed in 1997. She runs support groups for survivors of medical injuries and develops patient safety programs for medical professionals and consumers of healthcare.

As president of PULSE, Ms. Corina was instrumental in getting New York State lawmakers to pass the landmark legislation, Patient Health Information and Quality Improvement Act of 2000. It called for the creation of a statewide health information system to make available to the public a wide range of data on New York physicians. Her work was honored by Long Island’s Channel 12 News, and she was named Long Island’s Person Who Made a Difference in 2000.

A board member of the National Patient Safety Foundation, Ms. Corina co-chaired the Patient and Family Advisory Council from 2002-2006. In 2002, she spearheaded the first Patient Safety Awareness Week that shed light on the importance of partnerships between patients and health care professionals to reduce medical errors.

A popular lecturer, Ms. Corina speaks regularly at medical conferences, hospitals and health care organizations throughout the country. She discusses the patient’s role in patient safety and the changing culture to form partnerships to improve outcomes. She also helps health care professionals work with patients and their families after a medical injury or death has occurred and has developed curriculum on disclosure of medical errors which has been used at medical conferences and in resident training. She has done presentations and work with the New York City Health and Hospital Corporation staff and their Community Advisory Boards.

Ms. Corina has produced and directed numerous videos and audios for patient safety education. She co-hosted and directed a series on enhancing patient safety for a local Long Island radio station. She also developed, with a group of youth, the first teen patient safety program for young people.

She worked as a researcher at the Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center in Northport, Long Island from 2002-2004. While there, she developed the Long Island Patient Safety Coalition that brought together medical professionals for the purpose of sharing best-practice information.

Ms. Corina is a board member of the Joint Commission and served on the commission’s Health Literacy Public Policy Roundtable and serves on the Accreditation Committee and Future Value of Accreditation Work Group.

Corina won the 2010 MITSS HOPE award from RL Solutions, the 2009 Woman of Distinction by NY State Senator Kemp Hannon, declared Woman of Achievement by the Long Island Press in 2007 and was the winner of the 2006 Institute of Safe Medication Practices Cheers Award.

Ms. Corina has appeared as a patient-safety expert on CNN, Fox News, and other television and radio news shows. She has been interviewed by newspapers and magazines including: Child Magazine, Health Magazine, Long Island Newsday, New York Daily News, Washington Post, American Medical News, and Modern Healthcare. Her work has been published by the American Journal of Nursing and Perioperative Nursing Clinics. She has authored a book “Teaching Patient Safety, An Educators’ Guide” and co-authored “Family Centered Patient Advocacy, A Training Manual.” She has developed the first training program focused on Family Centered Patient Advocacy which helps families become part for the healthcare team. 

Ms. Corina is a youth advisor and lives with her two teenage children on Long Island.