See who made the list of most influential people in health care

With the expiration of the COVID-19 public health emergency in May, health care leaders worked to define the “new normal” and implement lessons learned from the pandemic, such as how to integrate telehealth into practice, address health inequities and strengthen public health—all while dealing with staff shortages and facing Medicare physician pay cuts.

To recognize this ongoing work, hospital and health system CEOs, federal officials, administrators, chief health officers and other health care executives were named to Modern Healthcare’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in health care.

The honorees were nominated by their peers and voted on by readers and senior editors of Modern Healthcare, a widely read Chicago-based trade publication covering the health care industry.

AMA Executive Vice President and CEO James L. Madara, MD, was named to the list for his leadership in rolling out the AMA Recovery Plan for America’s Physicians and launching the Rise to Health Coalition. Also noted was Dr. Madara’s role in chairing the AMA subsidiary Health2047.

JAMA^® and JAMA Network Editor-in-Chief Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, MD, PhD, MAS, also was honored for, among other things, overseeing the relaunch of JAMA Express, which gives articles with timely clinical or public health importance expedited review and gets them published within four weeks of submission.

Also named to the Modern Healthcare list were leaders of organizations that are members of the AMA Health System Program, which provides enterprise solutions to equip leadership, physicians and care teams with resources to help drive the future of medicine.

Jaewon Ryu, MD, president and CEO of Geisinger, was among the Modern Healthcare honorees. He is in line to become CEO of Risant Health, a nonprofit creation with Kaiser Foundation Hospitals that is looking to acquire Geisinger and other systems to build a national, value-based care network. The magazine cited Dr. Ryu’s championing the use of digital tools, including augmented intelligence (AI).

President and CEO Robert Riney was cited for his leadership in the Henry Ford Health plan to combine with Ascension Michigan and create a $10.5 billion, 13-hospital system. Modern Healthcare also noted Henry Ford Health’s aim to revamp its academic health care campus as part of a $2.5 billion community development partnership with the Detroit Pistons basketball team and Michigan State University. The Detroit-based system has also worked to lower physician burnout and to use patient-reported outcomes to alert physicians to worsening health in patients with cancer.

Landing a spot together on the list are Maria Ansari, MD, and Ramin Davidoff, MD, co-CEOs of The Permanente Federation, a consortium that supports more than 24,000 physicians and includes several medical groups that are members of the AMA Health System Program.

Dr. Ansari is also the CEO and executive director of Oakland, California-based The Permanente Medical Group and president and CEO of the Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group. Dr. Davidoff, meanwhile, also holds chief executive roles with Southern California Permanente Medical Group, Southeastern Permanente Medical Group in Georgia, and Hawaii Permanente Medical Group.

“I’m grateful to our people for the resiliency and clinical, technological and operational expertise they have demonstrated during a time of tremendous change,” Dr. Davidoff said in a news release. He added that the list honors the Permanente Medicine approach that’s “committed to delivering personalized, high-quality care to patients based on the best evidence and research and enabled by technology.” 

Learn more with the AMA about the innovative physician leadership of the Permanente Medical Groups.

President and CEO Bill Gassen also made the list. The nation’s largest rural health system, Sanford Health is developing a virtual care center designed to provide urgent care, behavioral health and primary care services to patients in remote sites via telehealth.

Another Sanford Health telehealth initiative will provide an obstetrics virtual hospitalist program to help physicians in regional emergency departments recognize and treat conditions associated with maternal mortality. Already in place are a telehealth endocrinology program and initiatives to prevent physician burnout.

Explore the full Modern Healthcare list of 100 most influential people in health care.