Beterra Client Leadership Series: Adedayo Dada, MD, MPH, CPHQ, CPPS, LSSGB

System by Design, Culture by Heart: Dr. Adedayo Dada’s Global Perspective on Patient Safety 

From serving under-resourced hospitals in Sub-Saharan Africa to leading high-reliability strategy at a prominent U.S. health system, Dr. Adedayo Dada’s journey is anything but conventional. But for him, that’s the point. 

“Serving underserved populations showed me how fragile the promise of healthcare can be,” he says. “It also taught me how powerful systems can be when they’re designed for the people in them.” 

Today, as Executive Director of Patient & Medication Safety and Just Culture Programs, Dr. Dada is using that insight to reshape how safety is defined, delivered, and sustained. 

A Mission Forged Across Borders 

Dr. Dada’s path began in Nigeria, where he trained as a physician. Clinical rotations in the United Kingdom and graduate education in the U.S. exposed him to vastly different healthcare systems. He also spent time in Bhubaneswar, India, and Toronto, Canada. These global experiences broadened his understanding of how cultural values, political structures, and resource availability influence local health systems. 

Though very different, these diverse systems all shared a common thread: systemic inequities and fragmented safety cultures. 

A pivotal moment came in graduate school when he took a class taught by the late Dr. Lucian Leape, widely regarded as the father of modern-day patient safety. 

“He talked about harm, not in theory, but in truth,” Dr. Dada recalls. “It made the mission clear: safety isn’t a box to check; it’s a cultural movement.” 

Redesigning Safety with Rigor and Empathy 

At Wellstar, Dr. Dada has led two key safety initiatives: a full redesign of the causal analysis methodology and the implementation of standard work protocols for safety event reviews in specific service lines. 

The first project focused on training both safety professionals and executive sponsors to enhance consistency and accuracy in root cause analyses. The second initiative centered on service line-level event reviews, ensuring credibility and independence while promoting enterprise-wide learning. “When you treat safety analysis like a system and not as a reaction, you build a foundation for scale,” he says. “And you build trust.” 

Naming the Real Challenges 

Ask Dr. Dada about the greatest obstacle in advancing safety, and he doesn’t flinch: “Leadership engagement.” He explains that healthcare organizations often hesitate to acknowledge system-level culpability or invest in the cultural foundations of Just Culture. 

“Safety should be a daily imperative. It is not an initiative,” he says. “Yet many institutions are strangely comfortable with unsafe conditions. That has to change.” 

It’s essential to involve safety professionals in driving changes. Although many consult different experts, leaders frequently ignore advice from patient safety and just culture specialists, which is often counterproductive.

He also emphasizes the importance of involving patients and families not just as recipients of care, but as co-creators of care models and safety strategies. “There’s a huge gap in how we engage patients and families,” he says. “We need their voices in defining value, quality, and what safety truly means.” 

A Vision Shaped by Global Systems Thinking 

From Nigeria to India, and from Toronto to Georgia, Dr. Dada’s leadership is deeply influenced by his global perspective. Each stop has revealed different drivers of harm—and different levers of change. 

“What works in one system might not be effective in another,” he says, “but the principles of listening, humility, and human-centered design are universal.” 

AI, Human Factors, and Moral Clarity 

Dr. Dada is especially energized by the integration of assisted intelligence (AI) with human factors in safety design. He’s also closely watching the implications of the CMS Patient Safety Structural Measures (PSSM), which he believes will raise the baseline for programmatic excellence. “The underlying principles in the CMS PSSM are foundational to a robust and credible safety program,” he says. 

He’s also vocal about the emotional toll that patient safety professionals often experience, a phenomenon that has only recently begun to gain the necessary recognition in the field. “There’s moral distress in this work,” he says. “We often have to navigate ethical dilemmas, bureaucratic and political (organizational) land mines, and it’s not talked about enough.” 

Qualities That Matter, And the Invisible Weight of the Work 

Dr. Dada often reflects on the emotional demands of safety leadership: the responsibility of recognizing risk that was overlooked, and the weight of knowing that one overlooked detail could impact a life. He believes that the most effective safety leaders are those who remain fueled not by fear, but by purpose. 

“The more you learn, the profound your humility should be. You start to see how vast and complex the system is and how much care it takes to improve it.” 

What defines a great safety leader? According to Dr. Dada, passion, humility, strategic clarity, and the courage to lead difficult conversations are key. 

“Diligence, innovation, diplomacy, these all matter,” he says. “But so does the ability to stay motivated, even when the work is invisible.” 

And for those just starting out? “Be a sponge. Be eager to learn everything. Stay humble. Know that sometimes,  the harm  prevented never sees the light because of your efforts.” 

Mentorship, Music, and Mission 

Mentorship has shaped Dr. Dada’s career at every turn, from supervisors to colleagues to distant thought leaders he’s never met. 

“Some of the most powerful lessons I’ve learned came from people who didn’t even know they were teaching me,” he says. “It shaped how I lead, how I collaborate, and how I navigate life beyond work.” 

Outside of work, few would guess that Dr. Dada is also a DJ. “I love spinning tracks at parties,” he laughs. “There’s something joyful about music; it sets the tone for connection. Rhythm is a universal language, and rhythm is everything.” 

For Dr. Dada, safety isn’t a protocol; it’s a philosophy. It’s not just built on process, but on people. And when leaders bring global insight, cultural humility, and moral clarity to the work, systems don’t just change; they heal. 

About Dr. Adedayo Dada 

Dr. Adedayo Dada is the Executive Director of Patient & Medication Safety and Just Culture Programs at Wellstar Health System. A foreign-trained physician with clinical experience across Nigeria, the U.K., Canada, and India, he holds advanced degrees in public health and healthcare management. His leadership is rooted in system design, equity, and high-reliability culture. 

About Wellstar Health System 

Wellstar is the largest and most integrated healthcare system in Georgia, with affiliated medical groups, urgent care centers, and it provides tailored health plans. 

This post is part of Beterra’s ongoing series highlighting exceptional leaders in healthcare safety and quality. Stay tuned for our next story!