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This is the type of topic where I feel that HN community tends to not provide valuable insight as it's outside of the community's collective expertise. How many individuals here have hired SVP+ level employees and how would that compare to the collective experience of Bezos, Buffet, and Dimon?
It's interesting reading the comments here. People with no background (I assume) in healthcare describe the guy as "brilliant" and "the perfect choice". People with years of experience in healthcare question think he's a poor pick and just a famous name. It's amazing what a good public relations strategy can do for someone!
Ouch. This is an incredible man who is a bad choice of CEO. CEO is fundamentally an execution-oriented, anti-creative role. Bezos know this and it implies that 1) He’s going to CEO this himself 2) He wants this intiative to fail
I think you are confusing CEO with COO. CEO typically is providing vision, mission & strategic direction while the executive team he builds is more execution oriented.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Jeff bezos mentioned they were looking for someone with expert knowledge, a beginner's mind, and a long-term perspective. Any leader of a current large healthcare organization would probably fail the 2nd and potentially 3rd criteria. In light of these criteria, the choice of Atul Gawande makes sense
That’s actually my point, I would argue Gawande doesn’t have expert knowledge. Being an expert surgeon is a very different skill set than an expert in healthcare delivery and management. Let’s take the checklist manifesto, a fantastic idea that unfortunately isn’t as widely applied as it should be. Why? Because if you ask most surgeons they’ll say, “yeah it’s a great idea, I do it already/I don’t need to do it though…
I'd point to another article, his "cost conundrum" article actually was a pretty insightful piece that I think gets at the core of one of the main drivers of high HC spend: local monopolies [1]
Another article of his, the "hot spotters" [2], was very influential among providers, administrators and even VCs as well. However, I dont think he's right that addressing frequent fliers is the solution -- you see the same cost concentration among a few patients in all countries, and even across time, so it doesnt appear that that phenomenon is the cause of the US' unique expensiveness
i dont know of many other people who have ideas that demonstrate the same combination of independent thinking, reach / visibility and understanding of the system as atul gawande (i actually dont think there are many great ideas to improve healthcare, most dont even diagnose the problems accurately). some of his ideas will be wrong, but he has new and solid hypotheses, and being able to test those and learn is a great way to make progress
[1] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/06/01/the-cost-conun...
[2] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/01/24/the-hot-spotte...
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Another (darker) perspective: they don’t want to lose money. Healthcare in the US is expensive in no small part because we pay more for things (duh). One of those things is physician time. Primary care physicians in the US make $60K more a year than comparable nations [1]. Dirty secret of healthcare: “efficiency” translates to “I make less money” for almost everyone in the system, very much including doctors. All wil…
I agree that profit motive is underappreciated and often is the real reason for consolidation, formation of ACOs, etc (many ACOs dont form for getting share of cost savings, rather they try to increase volume through partnerships). However I think it's odd to point out primary care as a culprit. Prices in the US are higher across the board, so just highlighting primary care salaries doesnt tell the whole story. Bette…
It's interesting reading the comments here. People with no background (I assume) in healthcare describe the guy as "brilliant" and "the perfect choice". People with years of experience in healthcare question think he's a poor pick and just a famous name. It's amazing what a good public relations strategy can do for someone!
People with years of experience in healthcare are invested in the status quo.
IMO, the parent comment was simply remarking that those with EXPERIENCE in the field have a very different set of memories/recollections about healthcare, not to mention a lot of domain-specific knowledge, that those outside do not have. Those of us who have worked in healthcare for years, as I have, have a MUCH more intimate understanding of its vast complexities than a lay-person could. I think that's entirely reasonable and your comment assigns a negative connotation to people who are largely doing noble and important work.
On a side note I find it funny in a sort of inside baseball way that his description of an operation that he does, that he describes in detail and holds up as an example, drives my surgeon wife up the wall because it is not great (she does a lot more of them).
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I wouldn't call him a popularizer, I'd call him a good communicator, which is an essential trait to any leader, especially one trying to do something long term and visionary. Effectively communicating new ideas to the wider medical community, especially super busy physicians, is really hard, and is the first step towards driving physician-led change in the healthcare system. I dont think his ideas are shallow or one…
> I don’t think his ideas are shallow or one dimensional, but I havent read all of his work. You wouldn’t. He adds depth through humanity, while eliding the pile of data that contradicts his points - data you have no reason to notice is missing. While the hc QI community was getting over checklists because of the number of studies showing it to be a largely ineffective intervention, he ignored the pile and kicked off…
Do you have a cite for this?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't call him a popularizer, I'd call him a good communicator, which is an essential trait to any leader, especially one trying to do something long term and visionary. Effectively communicating new ideas to the wider medical community, especially super busy physicians, is really hard, and is the first step towards driving physician-led change in the healthcare system. I dont think his ideas are shallow or one…
> I don’t think his ideas are shallow or one dimensional, but I havent read all of his work. You wouldn’t. He adds depth through humanity, while eliding the pile of data that contradicts his points - data you have no reason to notice is missing. While the hc QI community was getting over checklists because of the number of studies showing it to be a largely ineffective intervention, he ignored the pile and kicked off…
I don't mean to offend if you work in HC ops or QI, but I'd rather have someone take a macroeconomic perspective than an ops perspective when looking for solutions to high HC cost. I'm aware of the HC QI field and know a few ppl who work in that space and I know how hard it is to move the needle with that work. You are fighting against a system that in many ways is not incentivized to work with you. I know there's been a lot of great work done in HC QI but frankly it hasn't moved the needle on cost of care. I think it's time to look at changing the broader system to allow all the good HC QI ideas to actually get implemented broadly
I hear your point about intellectual overreach. However many people call it another thing, but with a positive connotation: the "beginners mind". That in fact is one of the 3 criteria bezos had for the CEO. That mindset facilitates learning, growth, risk taking and innovation. Yes you'll make mistakes but that's part of the plan. The experts who never step beyond their area of expertise won't be as successful because healthcare is too interdisciplinary to have leaders who won't reach out intellectually to people from other fields, and too broken for incremental improvements to turn the tide
Atul Gawande is a brilliant person with interesting ideas on how to make healthcare more humane and robust. This is still probably a terrible choice of CEO. To my knowledge he has never run a large organization or dealt directly with the complex backend of the healthcare system. The was healthcare is delivered and paid for is full of independent, semi monopolistic players that have often conflicting incentives. Oh an…
The ill defined mission of the organization along with perceived potential conflicts in priorities among the 3 companies has made candidates hesistent.