BIOGRAPHY

Melina Darby

Senior Project Manager, Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Melina Darby was a Senior Project Manager in the Clinical Design and Innovation (CDI) division of the Quality Department at Michigan Medicine (formerly the University of Michigan Health System). She received her Master of Public Health in Health Policy and Management from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia and Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. When Melina was obtaining her MPH, she became more interested in quality improvement, especially within academic health systems. She started working at Michigan Medicine in the summer of 2017 after she received her MPH degree. Her work was with the Samuel and Jean Frankel Cardiovascular Center (CVC) on a process improvement program and implementing Epic clinical pathways for colorectal surgery. She worked closely with a CDI Industrial Engineer to implement quality improvement strategies throughout Michigan Medicine. With an Industrial Engineer, Melina facilitated working sessions and utilized lean tools to understand the current state and processes. In this partnership, she implemented countermeasures and worked with stakeholders within Michigan Medicine to sustain and spread lean initiatives. Before Michigan Medicine, Melina worked at IBM Watson Health (formerly Truven Health Analytics and Thomson Reuters Healthcare) as an Analyst. In April of 2020, Melina left her role at Michigan Medicine and started a position as Project Manager at Altarum working in their Center for Behavioral Health.