Dr. Betsy McCaughey is a health policy expert and former Lt. Governor of New York State. In 2004, she founded the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths (www.hospitalinfection.org), a nationwide educational campaign to stop hospital-acquired infections. She serves as the Chairman of the organization. In five years, RID has made hospital infections a major public issue, provided compelling evidence that preventing infection
improves hospital profitability as well as saving lives, and won legislation in over 25 states for public reporting of infection rates. RID has become synonymous with patient safety and clean hospital care.

Dr. McCaughey’s research on how to prevent infection deaths has been featured on Good Morning America, the CBS Morning Show, ABC’s 20/20, and many other national programs. She has appeared on Fox News Network’s Hannity & Colmes, The O’Reilly Factor, CNN’s Talk Back Live, and numerous radio programs.

Dr. McCaughey is the author of over one hundred scholarly and popular articles on health policy, infection, medical innovation, the economics of aging, and Medicare. Her writings have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, New Republic, Policy Review, Forbes Magazine, New York Law Journal, Los Angeles Times, U.S. News & World Report, and many other national publications. Her 1994 analysis of the dangers of the Clinton health plan in the New Republic won a National Magazine Award for the best article in the nation on public policy. Her article on the dangers of “Dumbing
Down Medical Care” won the National Media Award from the American Society of Anesthesiologists. She has been profiled in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine, The Washington Post, and other publications.

From 1994 to 1998, she served as Lt. Governor of New York State. She focused on health issues, and her bills became models for legislation in many states and in Congress.

She has taught at Vassar College and Columbia University, and produced prize-winning studies while at two think tanks, the Manhattan Institute and later the Hudson Institute.

Prior to entering the health policy field, Dr. McCaughey earned a Ph.D. in constitutional history. She is the author of two books on that subject, From Loyalist to Founding Father (Columbia University Press), winner of the Bancroft Dissertation Award, and Government by Choice (Basic Books). She also chaired a national commission on reforming the Electoral College in 1992, wrote its report, Electing the President, and testified before Congress
on the subject. In 1989, she served as Guest Curator for the Bicentennial Exhibit and related events at the New York Historical Society.