John I Allen, MD, MBA, AGAF, FACG Vice President of Quality
Dr. Allen graduated with honors from Rice University in Houston, Texas in 1973. He attended medical school at the University of New Mexico, graduating in 1977. His internship, residency and specialty training in gastroenterology were completed at the University of Minnesota. After his fellowship, Dr. Allen spent ten years on the faculty of the Department of Medicine and in 1990, was promoted to Associate Professor of Medicine. In 1991 Dr. Allen was recruited to be Associate Medical Director of the Virginia Piper Cancer Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital and joined Minnesota Gastroenterology. Currently Dr. Allen is the Medical Director for Quality at Minnesota Gastroenterology- the largest fully integrated single specialty gastroenterology practice in the country.
Dr Allen has over 40 published articles and book chapters on topics ranging from basic molecular biology to practice management. In 2001 he returned to the University of St Thomas (Minneapolis) to complete an MBA program in Medical Group Management. Since that time, he has developed expertise in practice management, clinical performance measures and process improvement.
He is currently the Chair of the American Gastroenterology Association’s (AGA) Institute’s Committee on Clinical Practice and Quality. He co-chaired the Physician Performance Improvement Task Force that developed the current Colonoscopy Measures for the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS).
In May 2009 he became a Clinical Practice Counselor of the Governing Board of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA).
From January 2006-2009 he was Chair of the Board of the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement (ICSI – www.icsi.org).
He has spoken nationally about physician performance measures, public accountability and Quality improvement as it relates to gastroenterology. In 2006, he published the first “Outcomes Booklet” for a community-based GI practice (found at www.mngastro.com). He continues to practice gastroenterology in the Twin Cities of Minnesota.
