The Evelyn and Thomas McKnight Family Fund for Patient Safety and the CDC Foundation created the McKnight Healthcare Outbreak Heroes Prize to encourage and reward those who protect patients from harm related to healthcare outbreaks. We’re pleased to recognize Joe Perz as the 2025 recipient of this prestigious award!
Joe retired from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2025. He says receiving the McKnight Prize for Healthcare Outbreak Heroes, in recognition of his contributions to injection safety, was truly the “honor of a lifetime.” We asked Joe to reflect on how his early experiences shaped his career and helped inform ongoing efforts to strengthen patient safety today.
Joe’s Reflections and Advice
Many of the outbreaks that inspired my passion for patient safety occurred in outpatient and long-term care settings, often perceived as lower risk than hospitals. Patients receiving joint injections, colonoscopy sedation, chemotherapy infusions, or routine fingersticks trusted that these common procedures were safe. Yet investigations revealed that lapses in basic infection control, including the reuse of needles, syringes, or single-use medications, could spread life-threatening infections to dozens or even hundreds of patients.
Encountering these outbreaks early in my CDC career was both sobering and motivating. I worked closely with epidemiologists, EIS Officers, laboratory experts, and healthcare partners to identify sources, stop transmission, and document lessons learned.
Like many in public health and clinical fields, I identify as a problem solver. Before entering public health, I trained and worked as an engineer. These outbreaks shook me. Was healthcare safety really a roll of the dice? Engineers design systems for reliability and apply safety margins to account for human error. It was deeply unsettling to recognize how much healthcare relied on assumptions and trust.
As the work went on, it became clear that strong partnerships are critical to preventing and responding to healthcare outbreaks. Publicizing the risks associated with unsafe injections, with help from advocates like the McKnights, led to the formation of the Safe Injection Practices Coalition. That coalition brought together healthcare, public health, and industry partners to educate, advocate, and innovate to promote safer care practices.
This collaborative model ultimately helped inspire the Council for Outbreak Response: Healthcare-Associated Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance (CORHA), which has strengthened coordination, visibility, and support for healthcare outbreak response nationwide. Through CORHA, experts across disciplines share knowledge, build partnerships, and improve readiness to address emerging threats. Efforts like these have helped shape a stronger foundation for outbreak response.
Looking back, I am encouraged by the progress the field has made. Awareness of injection safety has increased, provider training has expanded, and partnerships between healthcare and public health have grown more coordinated and effective. Today, outbreaks are more rapidly detected and addressed, supported by networks and technologies that did not exist when I began this work.
At the same time, new challenges continue to emerge, requiring sustained vigilance and a commitment to learning from every event. The progress achieved so far demonstrates what is possible when professionals across sectors work together toward the shared goal of patient safety, reflecting decades of learning and collaboration across public health and healthcare communities.
My advice for the next generation of investigators is simple: this work requires patience and perseverance. Take satisfaction in building relationships, improving efficiencies, and steadily advancing the field. By applying epidemiology to uncover patterns, hidden risks, and root causes, you will help grow response-driven prevention, making healthcare safer for all.
This recognition reflects the dedication of countless colleagues, mentors, and partners who have contributed to this effort over the years. Protecting patients has always been, and will remain, a collective responsibility to identify and learn from mistakes—one outbreak at a time, if that’s what it takes.
