IHI Appoints Dr. Amar Shah as Chief Scientific Officer

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 23, 2026--

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) today announced the appointment of Amar Shah, MBBS, FRCPsych, LLM, MA, MBA, MBE, as permanent Chief Scientific Officer (CSO). Dr. Shah brings deep expertise in improvement science, international health system leadership, and a proven track record of applying IHI’s methods at scale. He is a respected and familiar figure across IHI’s global network of partners, customers, and faculty.

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Dr. Shah has served as IHI’s Interim CSO since July 2026, providing leadership and continuity for the organization’s science and innovation teams during a period of transition. Following a competitive executive search, IHI selected Dr. Shah as its permanent Chief Scientific Officer.

“Amar combines deep expertise in improvement science with an international perspective shaped by years of leadership across complex health systems,” said Sylvia Trent-Adams, PhD, RN, President and CEO of IHI. “He has spent his career helping health systems turn evidence into meaningful results, and his leadership will help ensure that IHI continues to innovate, learn, and drive improvement in partnership with communities around the world.”

Dr. Shah was previously the National Clinical Director for Improvement at NHS England, where he led large-scale improvement across one of the world’s most complex healthcare systems. He spent over a decade as Chief Quality Officer at East London NHS Foundation Trust — widely recognized across the NHS for its innovative approach to quality — where he applied IHI’s frameworks to drive measurable improvement for patients, local communities, and staff.

He has served as Chair of IHI’s Scientific Advisory Group and as a long-time IHI faculty member, and is a prolific author and speaker on improvement science, quality management, and health system transformation. He brings scientific rigor, field-tested credibility, and an international perspective that spans health systems across the UK and beyond.

“The science of improvement has taught us a great deal, but the translation of that knowledge into the hands of those who need it most remains the defining challenge,” said Dr. Shah. “The problems health systems face today are outpacing the solutions we have. IHI has the credibility, relationships, and methods to shape what improvement science itself becomes — to push the boundaries of evidence, innovation, and application in ways that reach more people, more equitably, than ever before.”

Leading IHI’s Scientific Agenda

As CSO, Dr. Shah will lead the development of IHI’s multi-year scientific agenda, establishing enterprise-wide standards for large-scale improvement programs that deliver results. He will oversee IHI’s Improvement Science Hub, including the innovation system, and formalize IHI’s Product Development and Management System, bringing greater discipline to how IHI prioritizes, builds, and scales its offerings. He will also strengthen how evidence is generated, applied, and shared across IHI’s programs, products, and global partnerships.

Dr. Shah’s permanent appointment, alongside Dr. Ronald Wyatt as IHI’s Chief Medical Officer, cements IHI’s sustained clinical and scientific leadership at the executive level — positioning the organization to advance solutions that are both scientifically rigorous and aligned with realities at the point of care.

“My career has been shaped by my introduction to IHI’s methods,” said Dr. Shah. “The last 15 years have been focused on learning, and supporting others to learn, how to apply these tested approaches to a variety of settings, and at increasing levels of scale. There are still so many opportunities to advance quality and safety, and to tackle inequities in quality of care, in partnership with our communities and service users. IHI is uniquely positioned not only to teach what is known, but to drive continued discovery and learning in the field of improvement science. That is the future of IHI I am here to help build.”

About the Institute for Healthcare Improvement

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement ( IHI ) is a leading, globally recognized not-for-profit healthcare improvement organization that has been applying evidence-based quality improvement methods to meet current and future healthcare challenges for more than 30 years. IHI provides millions of people in healthcare with methods, tools, and resources to make care better, safer, and more equitable; convenes experts to enable knowledge sharing and peer-learning; and advises health systems and hospitals of all sizes in improving their systems and outcomes at scale. IHI’s mission is to innovate and lead transformational improvement in health and healthcare worldwide.

Dr. Amar Shah joins the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) as its Chief Scientific Officer.

Former NFL star wide receiver Antonio Brown plans to accept a plea deal on an attempted murder charge in Miami that avoids prison, as part of an agreement that his lawyer said Wednesday was too good to turn down.

Brown is scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 30 to make the deal final. He could have faced up to 30 years in prison if convicted of the charge.

Brown is accused of grabbing a handgun from a security staffer after a celebrity boxing match in Miami on May 16, 2025, and firing two shots at a man he had gotten into a fistfight with earlier, according to an arrest warrant. Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu told investigators that one of the bullets grazed his neck.

“This was not an easy decision,” defense attorney Mark Eiglarsh said in a statement Wednesday. “Antonio believes in his innocence. He believes strongly in his Stand Your Ground defense, and he believes he would ultimately prevail at trial. But when prosecutors put an offer on the table that transforms a potential decades-long prison sentence into a significantly reduced charge and probation, there was simply no way he could reasonably turn it down.”

Florida’s so-called Stand Your Ground law allows people who believe they face death or serious injury to use deadly force to defend themselves without a duty to retreat.

Richard Cooper, an attorney for Nantambu, called the plea deal fair.

“We are satisfied that justice is served. My client maintains what he said previously: that he forgives Brown and will not cooperate with law enforcement,” Cooper said in an email Wednesday. “We wish Mr. Brown good health and that he grows from this event.”

In a previous statement, his attorneys said Nantambu, a devout Muslim, had made the decision to forgive Brown after “considerable reflection, prayer, and consultation with his family and counsel.”

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office declined to comment on Wednesday, with spokesperson Ed Griffith saying the details would be “fully clarified” at next week's hearing.

Brown has said on social media that he was defending himself from an attack and that others were trying to steal jewelry from him.

Brown, 38, spent 12 years in the NFL and was an All-Pro wide receiver who last played in 2021 for Tampa Bay, including winning a Super Bowl championship with quarterback Tom Brady. He spent much of his career with Pittsburgh. For his career, Brown had 928 receptions for more than 12,000 yards and accounted for 88 total touchdowns, counting punt returns and one pass.

Brown was extradited in November 2025 from Dubai, where he has business interests, after an arrest warrant on the attempted murder charge was issued in June 2025.

Brown has dealt with several legal problems over the years. He previously had been accused of battery of a moving truck driver, several domestic violence charges, failure to pay child support and other incidents. During a 2021 game with Tampa Bay against the New York Jets, Brown took off his jersey, shoulder pads and gloves and ran off the field, leading to his release by the Buccaneers and effectively ending his football career.

In a separate case, Nantambu was found guilty earlier this year of a misdemeanor charge of resisting an officer after police said he disrupted Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance in 2025. Nantambu was among dozens of dancers on the field at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans when he ran across the field with a Sudanese flag that read “Sudan and Free Gaza.” He surrendered to authorities after an arrest warrant was obtained.

Associated Press writer Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

FILE - Former NFL star wide receiver Antonio Brown walks after being released from the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, Nov. 13, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)