Dr. Ram Raju, president and CEO of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation is named among the 50 Most Influential Physician Executives and Leaders by Modern Healthcare magazine. The list honors physicians working in the healthcare industry who are deemed by their peers and an expert panel to be the most influential in terms of demonstrating leadership and impact. These physician leaders are innovators, excel in community services, and demonstrate reputable executive authority.
Raju joins U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, best-selling author, Harvard professor, surgeon and public health researcher Dr. Atul Gawande, chairman, president and CEO of Prime Healthcare Services Dr. Prem Reddy and president and CEO of the National Patient Safety Foundation Dr. Tejal Gandhi.
Listed at number 19, Raju, 62, rejoined the NYCHHC last spring. He previously held executive-level roles with the public hospital system -including chief medical officer and chief operating officer- and served on restructuring and reform committees. But in 2011, Raju was wooed from HHC to become CEO of the Cook County Health & Hospitals System in Chicago, where he led a restructuring needed to help reverse large budget deficits.
Gawande, who is placed fourth on the list, practices general and endocrine surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He is author of the New York Times best-selling books “Complications,” “Better,” and “The Checklist Manifesto,” which promoted the idea of using checklists to prevent medical errors. His most recent book, “Being Mortal,” focuses on end-of-life care issues. Gawande, 49, is also executive director of Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health systems innovation.
Reddy is chairman, president and CEO of Prime Healthcare Services, a privately held hospital chain based in Ontario, California, that he founded in 2001. Under Reddy’s leadership, the company has grown from a single hospital to 34 medical centers in 11 states. Reddy, 66, is now preparing the family-owned company for a potential initial public offering. He also has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to charity and has a school of health sciences named for him at Victory Valley College in Victorville, California. He is placed 14th on the list.
At number 16 is Murthy, 37, who was confirmed in December as the 19th U.S. surgeon general. In that role, Murthy has vowed to focus on personal health issues, including smoking cessation and obesity. He also oversees the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, which consists of more than 6,000 uniformed health officers who serve around the world. The son of Indian immigrants, Murthy co-founded an HIV/AIDS education charity that does work in India and the U.S. He also created a cloud-based system called TrialNetworks, focused on improving clinical trials so new drugs could be marketed sooner and more safely.
Gandhi, president and CEO of the National Patient Safety Foundation, has focused her work on the use of information systems to reduce medical mistakes and the implementation of patient-safety programs in healthcare settings. As head of the foundation since July 2013, she has received accolades for efforts to address the safety concerns in outpatient settings. Gandhi, 46, is a board-certified internist and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
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