There’s perhaps no better preparation for becoming a healthcare CEO than having spent time both in the CIO and COO roles, according to Suresh Gunasekaran, who recently took the helm at UCSF Health.

“I take a great deal from my time as CIO,” including how to run a reliable IT organization, he said during a recent interview with Kate Gamble, Managing Editor at healthsystemCIO.com. What he really loved about being CIO, however, was the opportunity to “partner on virtually every aspect of the healthcare enterprise,” whether it was clinical quality and efficiency, disaster response, or a number of other areas.

Now, Gunasekaran is able to leverage that experience — partnered with his time as a COO, which focused largely on transforming operations to deliver new clinical capabilities — at UCSF, where he started as CEO in March. In the interview, he talks about why he has always gravitated toward academic medical centers; the challenges leaders face in maintaining growth while still offering quality care; how he has benefited from having mentors; and why he believes collaboration will be a critical component in improving health equity.

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Bold Statements

When you’re in a pandemic, so much is changing within your own institution and within the industry, and I think that really created a burning platform where so many of our staff had questions.

Every healthcare leader from my generation remembers what it was like before and after the EMR. It was a huge moment, and I think that for me, it defined a lot of being a CIO.

You spend a lot of time as a CIO strategizing over how to use technology to help enhance the business; as a COO, you think strategically about how you can transform operations to deliver new clinical capabilities.

I think the next decade or two is really going to focus on health equity. UCSF is at the forefront in that area and will continue to push forward.

There are a lot of different organizations that many community members touch, and so it’s incumbent on us to forge the right partnerships and to promote the right kinds of collaboration for the benefit of the community.

Gamble:  Hi Suresh, thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us. And of course, congratulations on the new position! What was it about this role — and this organization — that most appealed to you?

Suresh:  I’ve always been attracted to working for academic medical centers because I really believe that the best environment to deliver excellent patient care is an environment in which we care deeply about the education mission, making sure we train the next generation of healthcare professionals. It’s an environment that’s really committed to doing world class research in advancing medicine, while at the same time having a deep patient care mission where you’re really dedicated to serving the needs of the entire community.

Academic medical centers have a unique role in bringing all three of those things together, and UCSF is simply one of the best in the country at doing that. We have a long tradition of excellence in our training and research programs and a really strong commitment to the healthcare of the Bay Area and the country.

 

Leading through “a time of growth” at UI Health Care

Gamble:  Looking back at your time at University of Iowa — you were there about three years — it seems like there was a lot of growth during that time; not just in terms of physical footprint, but also through collaboration and partnerships. Can you talk a bit about that experience and what it was like to...