U.S. News & World Report released its 2020-21 hospital honor roll list earlier this year. Here are the the chief medical officers leading the nation's top 15 hospitals and health systems:
1. Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minn.): Amy Williams, MD, first joined Mayo Clinic in 1990 and was selected as executive dean of practice, the hospital's CMO equivalent, in 2019. Dr. Williams' expertise lies in nephrology and hypertension. She is the medical director of the Eisenberg Dialysis Unit and chair of the department of medicine at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.
2. Cleveland Clinic: Robert Wyllie, MD, specializes in pediatric gastroenterology and has been CMO for more than nine years. He also heads the health system's service line performance management operations, which aim to advance patient care while lowering costs. Previously, Dr. Wyllie served as physician-in-chief of Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital.
3. Johns Hopkins Hospital (Baltimore): Peter Hill, MD, has served as the hospital's CMO and the senior vice president of medical affairs for the John Hopkins Health System since 2017. He specializes in emergency medicine and oversees program leadership across the areas of pharmacy, medical staff administration, health information management, infection control and patient safety, among others.
4. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia and Cornell: Steven Kaplan, MD, has more than 20 years of experience in emergency medicine. Since 2017, Dr. Kaplan has led medical affairs and clinical practice as vice president and associate CMO at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center's associate CMO and vice president is Tony Gagliardi, MD, a pulmonology specialist who has held the role since 2013.
5. UCLA Medical Center (Los Angeles): Robert Cherry, MD, heads quality improvement efforts as UCLA Health's chief medical and quality officer, where he's served since 2014. Prior to UCLA, Dr. Cherry led strategic development and operational implementation of healthcare initiatives as Navigant Consulting's director of clinical and operational excellence. He is the former CMO and vice president of clinical effectiveness at Maywood, Il.-based Loyola University Medical Center.
6. Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston): O'Neil Britton, MD, was appointed CMO and senior vice president of the hospital in 2016. Dr. Britton is the former chief health information officer for Partners Healthcare, formerly Mass General Brigham, and former CMO at Boston-based Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital.
7. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (Los Angeles): Richard Riggs, MD, provides clinical oversight to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Cedars-Sinai Marina del Rey Hospital as the health system's CMO and senior vice president of medical affairs. Dr. Riggs has spent more than 25 years at Cedars-Sinai and was selected for the position in 2019. He is also a clinical professor in the health system's medical program and at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine.
8. UCSF Medical Center (San Francisco): Adrienne Green, MD, oversees certification activities as the health system's vice president for patient safety and accreditation. Dr. Green joined UCSF in 1998 and took on the CMO position in 2016. She has served in many leadership roles, including as director of the UCSF Transfer Center, and led the health system's response plan during the Ebola epidemic.
9. NYU Langone Hospitals (New York City): Fritz Francois, MD, joined NYU Langone in 2000 and became CMO and patient safety officer at NYU Langone Medical Center in 2015. Dr. Francois specializes in gastroenterology and is also a professor at NYU Langone Health's Department of Medicine.
10. Northwestern Memorial Hospital (Chicago): Gary Noskin, MD, is the CMO at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and senior vice president of Northwestern Memorial HealthCare — titles he's held since 2013. He specializes in infectious diseases as a professor at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine and has led the health system's COVID-19 response plan.
11. University of Michigan Hospitals-Michigan Medicine (Ann Arbor): Jeffrey Desmond, MD, is an associate professor of emergency medicine and was named CMO of the University of Michigan Hospitals in 2015. He joined the university's surgery faculty in 1993. Prior to his role as CMO, Dr. Desmond was the health system's director of clinical quality and was responsible for developing initiatives to improve care quality and patient safety.
12. Brigham and Women's Hospital (Boston): Sunil Eappan, MD, joined BWH in 2018 as CMO and senior vice president of medical affairs. He oversees the development of strategies meant to improve the hospital's overall efficiency and patient outcomes, as well as leading key initiatives in physician recruitment and retention. Dr. Eappan is the former CMO and chief of anesthesiology of Boston-based Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.
13. Stanford Health Care- Stanford Hospital (Palo, Alto, Calif.): Niraj Sehgal, MD, took on the position of CMO in September, and is also a professor of medicine and senior associate dean for clinical affairs at Stanford's School of Medicine. Dr. Sehgal was chief resident at Stanford before completing a 16-year run in leadership positions at San Francisco-based UCSF Health, including as vice president and chief quality officer.
14. Mount Sinai Hospital (New York City): Shirish Huprikar, MD, became CMO and vice president of the hospital in 2016. He is also an associate professor at the health system's Icahn School of Medicine. Dr. Huprikar has led the Transplant Infectious Diseases program since 2003, an initiative dedicated to the prevention and management of infectious diseases in solid organ and bone transplant recipients.
15. Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian (Philadelphia): PJ Brennan, MD, is an infectious diseases physician who has served as the University of Pennslyvania's Health System CMO and senior vice president since 2005. He is also a professor at the university's Perelman School of Medicine, former director of infection control at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and former president of The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.