Healthcare leadership takes a variety of forms at different organizations and must address many challenges. What today’s healthcare leaders all share in common is the need to respond creatively to the rapidly changing healthcare environment, as augmented intelligence (AI) and other technology, policy uncertainty, staffing shortages, and other disruptions create both challenges and opportunities.
Modern Healthcare’s annual list of the 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives, published earlier this summer, spotlights physicians who are leading the healthcare field in responding to this shifting landscape and advancing patient care. The list was chosen by the newsroom of Modern Healthcare, which covers the business of healthcare nationwide.
The select group includes leaders from organizations that are part of the AMA Health System Member Program, which equips leadership, physicians and care teams with resources to help drive the future of medicine.
In their own way, each of these outstanding doctors is enabling innovation, improving outcomes and supporting physicians and their care teams. Profiled briefly below—listed alphabetically by organization name—they illustrate the crucial role of physician leaders across healthcare and the many ways they can make an impact.
CenterWell Senior Primary Care
In a variation of a Silicon Valley aphorism, Sanjay Shetty, MD, has moved fast and built things as president of CenterWell, part of Humana. Since March 2023, when Dr. Shetty joined CenterWell, he has led the addition of nearly 150 primary care centers and more than 700 clinicians, increasing patient volume by more than 350,000. He also has spearheaded the growth of home-based care, as well as new partnerships with pharmacies to increase access to GLP-1 medications and other specialty prescriptions.
All this activity contributed to CenterWell’s $22.5 billion in revenue in 2025. CenterWell is the largest provider of primary care for older adults, and recently Dr. Shetty has given added attention to the needs of this rapidly growing patient population. In 2025, he helped create the CenterWell Fulfillment Index, a national measure of factors that affect well-being in older adults, which is used to help guide care.
HCA Healthcare
Called a physician leader at heart by his colleagues, Michael Cuffe, MD, has maintained a core focus on patient care while overseeing the clinical operations of HCA Healthcare, a for-profit system with 189 hospitals and 2,500 care sites. Since assuming his role as executive vice president and chief clinical officer, he led improvements in patient safety and care quality and expanded access to care across the Nashville-headquartered system, which has about 47 million patient encounters each year.
Dr. Cuffe responded to the shortage of doctors and nurses by building up HCA Healthcare’s training programs to include more than 5,700 residents and fellows and expanding the system’s Galen College of Nursing to 25 campuses. In addition, he developed new care models that addressed shortages of specialists in emergency medicine, anesthesiology and radiology. Dr. Cuffe also has championed the use of technology to ease workloads, which at HCA Healthcare have included an AI nursing shift scheduler, real-time nursing unit monitoring and an AI medical scribe system.
HCA Healthcare announced in late June that Dr. Cuffe would step down as executive vice president and chief clinical officer effective Aug. 31. He will continue to serve the organization as an executive consultant through February 2027 to support the leadership transition. Michael Schlosser, MD, succeeded Dr. Cuffe as executive vice president and chief clinical officer on Sept. 1. Dr. Schlosser previously served as HCA Healthcare’s senior vice president and chief transformation officer.
Jefferson Health
In his various leadership roles, Baligh R. Yehia, MD, MSc, MPP, has pursued innovations that increase access to care for patients and support physicians and care teams. He’s maintained that focus as president of Jefferson Health, a nonprofit system with 33 hospitals and 700 care sites across the Pennsylvania and New Jersey areas.
Since becoming president in early 2023, Dr. Yehia has guided the implementation of virtual primary care programs that have served an additional 500 patients each month. These innovations contributed to Jefferson Health’s 12.5% increase in overall physician visits and a 15.2% increase in patient volume from the system’s 2023 to 2026 fiscal years. Dr. Yehia was also deeply involved in the development of same-day and next-day oncology programs that have accelerated cancer treatment delivery.
An advocate of using AI to enhance patient experience, he was also heavily involved in ambient listening and workflow automation initiatives that are expected to save 10 million clinician hours that can be repurposed for patient care.
Optum
As a leader at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services during the Obama administration, Patrick Conway, MD, MSc, leads Optum as CEO, drawing on his experience as a practicing pediatrician, healthcare executive and national policymaker. Optum is UnitedHealth Group’s care delivery, pharmacy and technology division, focused on making care simpler, more affordable and better coordinated.
Dr. Conway championed value-based care at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and now guides Optum’s work to expand a connected, prevention-focused approach to care. Optum serves more than 123 million people, and patients in its value-based arrangements are 18% less likely to be hospitalized and 11% less likely to visit the emergency department than those in traditional fee-for-service models.
He puts that approach into action by aligning Optum’s medical, behavioral and pharmacy services. Care teams share information and coordinate services, giving patients consistent, comprehensive support throughout their care journey. Dr. Conway’s work to improve healthcare in the U.S. has earned him membership in the National Academy of Medicine.
The Permanente Medical Group
Making Modern Healthcare’s list for the second consecutive year, Maria Ansari, MD, has continued to advance physician and care team well-being and workforce development as CEO and executive director of The Permanente Medical Group which serves 4.7 million patients in Northern California at 21 hospitals and 203 medical offices.
Dr. Ansari led the rollout of a physician-led redesign of primary care and played a key role in securing funding for a 25% expansion of residency and fellowship programs over five years. This increase will add 128 trainees in 17 programs and expand the mental health workforce.
She also serves as president and CEO of Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group and CEO of Northwest Permanente—which along with The Permanente Medical Group include more than 13,000 physicians—and as co-CEO of The Permanente Federation, which supports Permanente physicians and staff. In 2024, she led the launch of an ambient AI listening technology across all the medical groups, which has enhanced the patient experience while making work easier for doctors.
Rush University System for Health
As president and CEO of Rush University System for Health and its flagship, Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Omar Lateef, DO, has expanded their reach with a combination of new locations, new virtual care options, and a growing list of partnerships. This past year, Rush opened two outpatient locations and initiated partnerships with Amazon One Medical and CVS Pharmacy’s MinuteClinic to increase access to care and provide avenues to Rush specialists.
The Rush system and Dr. Lateef also have received national attention as a leader in health equity. The three Rush hospitals have extensive programs to improve health, and the social conditions affecting it, in economically marginalized nearby neighborhoods. The AMA also is a West Side United anchor mission partner, having invested $5 million in the effort since 2020. Among these endeavors, Rush led a coalition that developed Sankofa Village Wellness Center on Chicago’s far West Side that opened in April. Earlier this year, Rush University Medical Center was among the first hospitals to receive a new certification for health equity from the Joint Commission. Also, RUSH BMO Institute for Health Equity links the many health equity initiatives that Rush has spearheaded for decades.
This work clearly is Dr. Lateef’s passion: Rush announced this summer that he will be stepping down as CEO in June 2027, returning to clinical practice and expanding his work in community health
Sanford Health
The physician shortage is a big challenge for all healthcare leaders, and an even bigger challenge for rural areas. As the chief physician of Sanford Health, the largest rural healthcare system in the U.S., Joshua Crabtree, MD, has been responding to that challenge. Last year, he helped lead the Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based system’s integration with Marshfield Clinic Health System in Wisconsin.
Under Dr. Crabtree’s leadership, Marshfield Clinic recruited more than 120 new clinicians, including 32 primary care doctors, and cut physician turnover nearly in half. In addition, Dr. Crabtree has supported Sanford Health’s clinician wellness efforts, which have improved the system’s physician engagement scores substantially. He also has helped drive greater workplace flexibility that allows doctors to practice across regions and care settings, increasing care access in underserved areas.
A dedicated rural doctor himself, Dr. Crabtree has been practicing family medicine in Luverne, Minnesota, for nearly 20 years and still sees patients there in addition to his leadership responsibilities.
