2025 Event agenda

9th national forum on sepsis

november 6, 2025
10am EST

Agenda

10:15AM

roundtable 1

new sepsis legislation & Policies: what they mean for hospitals nationwide

Sepsis is now at the center of federal health policy. New and proposed measures from CDC and CMS, along with pending legislation like the SEPSIS Act, are set to transform how hospitals identify, report and treat sepsis. This high-level session will unpack what these changes mean on the ground. Panelists will engage in a dialogue that unpacks how outcome and process measures, quality reporting and incentive programs are designed to drive care improvement, compliance and accountability. Adding a real-world perspective, leadership from New York’s largest hospital system will discuss how these policies are already reshaping practice. Together, the panel will explore how heightened federal focus is changing institutional culture around sepsis – and what that shift means for patient safety and quality improvement across the health system.

panelists

Raymund Dantes, MD, Assoc. Professor of Medicine & Physician Lead, EHC Sepsis Program,

Emory University School of Medicine

Akin Demehin, VP, Quality and Safety Policy, American Hospital Association

Mark Sands, MD, SVP, Clinical Transformation & Improvement & Associate CMO,

Northwell Health

Foster Gesten, MD, Former Chief Medical Officer, Office of Quality & Patient Safety, NYSDOH &

END SEPSIS Expert Panel Co-Chair

Moderator: Martin Doerfler, MD, Former Chief Medical Officer, Office of Quality & Patient Safety, NYSDOH &

END SEPSIS Medical Advisor

11:00AM

Roundtable 2

Trusted Messengers: The Urgent Need for a New Paradigm for
Health Communication – and How AI Will Change Everything

Health communications experts explore the urgent need to equip clinicians as trusted health communicators in an era of competing public health information, diverse information sources and declining public trust. Panelists will examine the disruptive force of generative AI in healthcare communication and consider what role health systems, medical education and professional societies must play in elevating communication as a core competency in patient safety and sepsis care. Patient advocates will speak to the devastating consequences of poor physician communication on sepsis patient outcomes.

panelists

Jeremy Faust, MD, Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School & Editor-in-Chief, MedPage Today

Kristen Panthagani, MD, Yale Emergency Scholar & Founder, You Can Know Things

Rachael Spooner, VP, Center for Virtual Health, Northwell Health & Asst. Professor, Dept of Science Education, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell

April Chavez, Sepsis Survivor & Patient Advocate

Moderator: Martin Doerfler, MD, Former Chief Medical Officer, Office of Quality & Patient Safety, NYSDOH &

END SEPSIS Medical Advisor

12PM

Roundtable 3

Intelligence in Action: How AI is Reshaping Sepsis Care

This interactive session brings together leading innovators and health system executives to explore how artificial intelligence is transforming sepsis detection and management in hospital settings. Moving beyond traditional human-dependent identification methods, the discussion will demystify AI fundamentals while highlighting real-world implementations across diverse clinical environments. Panelists will examine the role of AI in early sepsis detection, red-flag identification, and alignment with new CMS sepsis definitions, drawing from past challenges and current successes to address practical considerations for hospital clinicians, sepsis coordinators, and innovation officers. The session will also look ahead to how emerging technologies are poised to reshape sepsis care delivery over the next three to five years, offering participants actionable insights for leveraging these tools to improve patient outcomes.

panelists

Derek Angus, MD, Chair, Department of Critical Care Medicine, UPMC & University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

James Morrison, MD, Physician, Critical Care Medicine & Emergency Medicine, & Chair, Enterprise Sepsis Committee, Cleveland Clinic

Suchi Saria, MD, Founder & CEO, Bayesian Health

Moderator: Nirav R. Shah, MD, Senior Scholar, Stanford University, Founder, Qualified Health,

END SEPSIS Expert Panel Co-Chair

12:45PM

Roundtable 4

Breakthrough Diagnostics in Sepsis: What They Mean for Hospitals and Providers

This session brings together leading innovators to explore how emerging diagnostic technologies are advancing sepsis detection and management in hospital settings. The discussion will highlight real-world applications of new tools and testing methods designed to identify sepsis earlier and more accurately. Drawing on lessons learned from implementation efforts across care settings, panelists will address practical considerations for clinicians and sepsis coordinators, from integration into clinical workflows to improving diagnostic confidence and timeliness. The session concludes with a forward-looking discussion on how these breakthroughs may shape sepsis care over the next several years, offering participants concrete insights for improving outcomes and readiness.

panelists

Tim Sweeney, MD, Co-Founder & CEO, Inflammatix

Ajay Shah, PhD, Co-Founder & CEO, Cytovale

Orlaith Staunton, Co-Founder & Executive Director, END SEPSIS

Moderator: Martin Doerfler, MD, Former Chief Medical Officer, Office of Quality & Patient Safety, NYSDOH &

END SEPSIS Medical Advisor