Isabela Soares de Castro

At 29 years old, Isabela saw her newborn daughter die in an ICU after an eclampsia crisis, which also almost took her to death. After that, she watched the collapse of her personal life while trying to understand that terrible adverse event with the lenses of a Patient. With no answers and after years of therapy, a broken marriage and much reflection she managed to return to his professional life, at the time, as a Pediatric Dentist. She served 7 years in the Brazilian Air Force as a Specialized Dentist and 10 years at United Health Group as a Specialized Dentist and consultant for innovation and Patient experience initiatives. When Isabela entered into the Air Force as a Pediatric Dentist, she was told to see a patient with a very rare syndrome, called Meckel Gruber. It was this experience that moved Isabela into action. To this day, she remembers her feelings from the first contact with the patient and family in the NICU and the identification that she felt in the eyes of that scared mother. The patient was afraid and vulnerable within their own healthcare system. Isabela quickly realized that the healthcare system didn’t offer specialized care for people with disabilities. From there Isabela started knocking on the Leaders doors to advocate for these patients. And after countless discussions, and some arguments, Isabela transformed specialized Dentistry to treat people with disabilities, Geriatric Dentistry, Home Care Dentistry and Hospital Dentistry bridging dental care to other health care areas, not only at Air Force but in every single setting she worked. What Isabela didn’t realize was that she healed her own wounds while serving patients, family members and community with her devotional advocacy and with the compassionate approach she´s inherited from the unique diversity of her family. Isabela experiences vary from public, private and military systems, hospitals and home care to experience in healthcare operations, management and policy. She’s been involved with quality improvement, risk management and innovation initiatives and is well versed in working within new cultures, matrixed leadership global teams and takes pride in not accepting the status quo. She’s a global activist with the worldwide movement What Matter to You? (WMTY) and Patient advocate through her volunteering work on her local community and on four International Boards. At the Beryl Institute’s she serves as the Co-Chair of the Global Patient and Family Advisory Board (GPFAB), at Planetree International, she serves as an active member of the Patient and Family Partnership Council so as at Patient and Family Advisory Network Board. She also serves the Honorary Board for Patient Centered Care at International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQUa), where she is the chair of the Council of Patients and families and is a champion at Patients 4 Patients US. Isabela is Improvement Advisor and IHI Fellow, Planetree Fellow, ISQUa Fellow and also holds an MBA and Msc. Today she speaks on patient experience issues, blogs, webinars and consults in these roles.