Vermont Oxford Network names new leaders after 38 years

Vermont Oxford Network is promoting Danielle Ehret and Erika Edwards into top leadership roles as co-founders Jeffrey Horbar and Roger Soll retire July 1 after 38 years. The transition comes as the neonatal quality-improvement network spans more than 1,200 centers in 42 countries and manages one of the world’s largest NICU databases.

Why it matters: - Vermont Oxford Network’s leadership change closes an era that helped shape neonatal quality improvement for decades. - The network now reaches more than 1,200 centers across 42 countries, so the transition affects a global community of neonatal care teams. - VON’s database footprint and quality-improvement programs influence how hospitals track outcomes, compare practices and improve care for newborns and families.

What happened: - Co-founders Jeffrey Horbar, MD, and Roger Soll, MD, will retire July 1 and move into senior advisor roles after 38 years leading Vermont Oxford Network. - Horbar is stepping down as chief executive officer and president. Horbar previously also served as chief scientific officer. - Soll is retiring as vice president and director of the Institute for Evidence-Based Practice. - Danielle Ehret, MD, MPH, will become chief executive officer and president. - Erika Edwards, PhD, MPH, will become chief scientific officer and vice president. - The leadership team will also add John Zupancic, MD, MS, ScD, as chief impact officer and Alex Stevenson, MD, as director of global health.

The details: - VON grew from 34 centers in the U.S. to more than 1,200 centers in 42 countries under Horbar and Soll’s leadership. - The organization began focused on clinical trials and benchmarking data for very low birth weight infants. - VON now says it provides the largest and most comprehensive databases for neonatal practices and outcomes in the world. - VON’s integrated quality-improvement services include databases for all NICU admissions. - The network also tracks developmental follow-up for extremely preterm and extremely low birth weight infants. - VON maintains a global database co-designed for quality improvement in lower-resourced neonatal units. - The databases hold nearly five million infant records. - Members add more than 275,000 infant records each year. - More than 900 neonatal care teams have taken part in VON quality-improvement programs over three decades. - Those programs have generated publications and conference posters on topics including chronic lung disease and opioid withdrawal. - VON’s family-centered model includes family representatives as core faculty and equal team members with clinical teams. - Horbar coined the term “follow-through” to push teams to address social disparities that affect long-term infant and family health.

Between the lines: - The succession keeps leadership inside VON, which should help preserve the network’s research, quality-improvement and family-centered culture. - Ehret and Edwards are inheriting an organization that already has a broad international base and a deep data infrastructure, so execution may matter more than reinvention. - Horbar and Soll framed VON as a collaborative model for high-, middle- and low-income countries, signaling that equity and shared learning remain central priorities.

What's next: - Ehret and Edwards will lead VON forward starting July 1. - The new team is expected to continue expanding collaboration, quality improvement and global health work for vulnerable infants and families. - VON’s members will keep contributing data and using the network’s databases to compare outcomes and improve neonatal care.

The bottom line: - Vermont Oxford Network is handing day-to-day leadership to a new generation while trying to preserve the evidence-based, family-centered model that made the organization a global neonatal force.