Ten healthcare executives — including six CEOs, a president/CEO, a CFO and two physician leaders — joined Becker’s to discuss what physicians bring to leadership that other backgrounds often can’t, from faster decision-making under uncertainty to a patient-first lens and frontline credibility.
Question: What do physicians bring to leadership that others can’t?
Editor’s note: These responses were edited lightly for clarity and length.
Lee Boles. CEO of Hunt Regional Healthcare (Greenville, Texas): Having just promoted a physician to a senior leadership position, I have already discovered that a physician can make difficult, complex decisions with limited data. I assume this from a carrier where there is often an incomplete set of knowledge and facts from which to proceed on a course of action. Typical healthcare leaders take a long time to develop this skill. Oftentimes, it seems they offer clarity from a patient’s perspective, which I find valuable given I became a CEO from the CFO career path, far removed from the clinical insights sometimes needed.
Doug Curran, MD. Former President of the Texas Medical Association and Family Medicine Physician at East Texas Community Clinic (Athens): Physicians bring the experience of caring for patients in the patient physician dynamic that includes vulnerability, compassion, commitment, empathy, dependence, availability, opportunity and hope that is complicated by a siloed dysfunctional healthcare environment driven by economics and technology rather than patient-centered care that makes life easier and focuses on the humanity of the people we care for and about.
James Holland. President and CEO of Johns Hopkins Health Plans (Hanover, Md.): At Johns Hopkins Health Plans, our close, day-to-day collaboration with physicians across the Johns Hopkins Health System and Johns Hopkins University underscores the critical role physician leadership plays in effective healthcare delivery — particularly within provider-sponsored health plans. Physicians help the enterprise understand what is clinically appropriate and anticipate how network physicians will experience and respond to health plan decisions. They bring a leadership perspective grounded in firsthand accountability for patient outcomes, informed by both clinical practice and academic rigor. That perspective is especially valuable when aligning care delivery with payment models designed to improve quality and affordability.
This physician-led perspective is particularly important in facilitating the appropriate use of ASCs and other site-of-care programs, where clinical efficiency, patient experience, and cost management must be tightly aligned. Physician leaders help bridge the traditional divide between payer and provider by translating clinical realities into practical, system-level strategies. Their credibility with frontline clinicians builds trust, accelerates adoption of value-based approaches and ensures that operational and financial decisions remain connected to patient care. When physician leadership is fully integrated with strong operational and administrative expertise, it strengthens collaboration between payers and providers while driving better outcomes for patients.
Pat Keel CFO of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (Memphis, Tenn.): I believe that physicians bring a form of leadership that is rooted in lived experience at the point of care. They are trained to make high-stakes decisions under uncertainty, synthesize complex information quickly, and remain accountable for outcomes that affect real people in real time. That combination creates a deep sense of responsibility and credibility that is difficult to replicate.
What truly distinguishes physicians as leaders is their proximity to patients and clinical teams. They can frequently understand how policies, budgets, workflows and strategic decisions translate — or fail to translate — into care delivery. This perspective allows them to identify unintended consequences early and advocate for solutions that are both operationally sound and clinically meaningful.
Most physicians are also trained collaborators. Medicine is inherently team-based, requiring coordination across disciplines, respect for expertise and constant communication. When physicians bring those instincts into leadership roles, they help bridge the traditional divide between administration and clinicians, fostering trust and alignment that are essential for transformation.
At their best, physician leaders keep organizations grounded in purpose. They remind leadership teams that quality, safety, and patient experience are not abstract goals, but daily realities. In an era of increasing complexity and pressure in healthcare, that grounding is not just valuable but can be essential.
Richard Lofgren, MD. President and CEO of The University of Oklahoma Health (Oklahoma City): Physicians have a fundamental understanding of what is specifically entailed to provide clinical care — the processes, the teamwork and how it really works on the ground. That puts them in a much better position to call ‘balls and strikes’ about what is truly critical versus what is not. They can distinguish the real priorities as they relate to patient care and ensure the organization remains focused on its core mission.
Meena Mallipeddi. CEO of AmplifyMD (Los Gatos, Calif.): As a non-physician leader, I bring operational, technology and scaling experience — but I don’t bring lived clinical experience. And in a clinical organization, that distinction matters. Physicians have firsthand insight into how technology and workflows play out in real patient interactions. They know what has been tried before, where systems break down under pressure, and what would genuinely increase productivity while improving care. That perspective is irreplaceable. It’s why we rely heavily on frontline clinicians and physician leaders to shape our platform, evaluate features, and inform priorities. Without that clinical lens, even well-intentioned decisions risk missing the realities of care delivery.
Beau McNeff. CEO of Weiser Memorial Hospital (Idaho): I believe physicians bring a few complementary skills to leadership that it’s rare to find in others. They are trained from early on to question things, to look deeply for explanations and that is such a great skill as a leader. They also bring a relentless focus on the patient that is truly unmatched. Combined, these skills enable physicians to approach problems in a way that is incredibly thoughtful and mission-focused. Oftentimes their approach brings a perspective that I hadn’t thought of or has a different nuance to it than what others have come up with.
Alan Sickles, MD. CEO of Prime Healthcare’s Saint Michael Medical Center (Newark, N.J.): At Prime Healthcare, physician leadership is foundational to who we are. As a physician-founded and physician-led health system, our leadership decisions are grounded in clinical evidence, compassion and a firsthand understanding of what improves outcomes for patients and communities. Physicians bring the experience of care delivery to leadership, allowing operational and financial decisions to be evaluated through the lens of safety, quality and patient impact.
This model has delivered measurable results. Prime hospitals are consistently recognized by national organizations such as The Leapfrog Group, Healthgrades, Premier and the Lown Institute for patient safety, clinical outcomes and health equity. We believe those recognitions reflect the power of physician leadership that keeps clinical excellence at the center of every decision.
Erik Summers, MD. CMO of Medical University of South Carolina’s Division of Hospital Medicine (Charleston): Physicians have a front-line clinical perspective, which is invaluable to the C-suite. One of the keys to success for a hospital leader is seeing the big picture and combining it with the front-line picture. Spreadsheets and data only tell you so much. Often, you can get to the “Why” by asking the providers who are living the situation every day. Physicians seem to have an easier time going to the front lines and getting that “Why.”
When a physician leader also practices clinically, it can build credibility, improving front-line relationships. Improved relationships can lead to better communication with staff, which can in turn lead to a greater understanding of the situation. And that understanding can lead to implementing a better process that maximizes patient care.
