DIRECT DIFFERENCE TEAM

Stephanie van der Kraan RN, BSN, BA, MSL, CPHQ

Clinical Data Specialist & Account
Manager

Stephanie van der Kraan is a healthcare quality professional and clinical analyst with two decades of experience spanning bedside nursing, clinical data abstraction, patient safety, and multi-hospital quality leadership. She brings extensive expertise in clinical data analysis and registry abstraction, with a strong focus on data accuracy, integrity, and meaningful quality improvement.

Stephanie has more than 11 years of experience with the Vascular Quality Initiative (VQI) Registry, overseeing complex clinical data abstraction and quality improvement activities across diverse healthcare settings. As a lead analyst supporting five hospitals ranging from 36 to 654 beds, she facilitated multidisciplinary best-practice teams in vascular surgery, thoracic surgery, emergency response, and cardiac arrest care. Her experience also includes leading root-cause analyses of serious safety events, identifying system vulnerabilities, and supporting evidence-based improvements that resulted in sustained gains in safety and performance.

Her leadership contributed to the transformation of a small corporate quality department into a 100-member Institute of Safety and Quality.
With a strong clinical foundation that includes emergency department nursing in a Level I trauma center and leadership in a progressive pulmonary unit, Stephanie brings a clinically grounded perspective to quality and data analysis. Her multidisciplinary background enables her to connect clinical practice, data integrity, patient safety, and performance improvement while working collaboratively with healthcare teams.

In her role as Account Manager with Direct Difference, Stephanie combines her clinical expertise, registry experience, and quality leadership to support hospital partners with complex clinical data abstraction and quality improvement initiatives. She is committed to advancing healthcare quality through rigorous data analysis, collaborative leadership, and compassionate advocacy for patients and healthcare teams.