Featured Guest Contributor

A Message from New President & CEO David Entwistle

How we can work together effectively to sustain Stanford’s excellence and accelerate progress was a theme throughout the extensive conversations that led to my appointment here. I am privileged and energized by the opportunity to begin our collaboration.

I have dedicated much of my career to academic medical centers, most recently as CEO of the University of Utah Hospitals & Clinics and previously in leadership roles at the University of Wisconsin Hospital & Clinics as well as City of Hope National Medical Center. These experiences have given me a great appreciation for the unique attributes and contributions of academic medical centers in advancing human health and fostering clinical excellence. 

I have also learned that each has its own distinctive culture, strengths and challenges. As we get to know each other, your insights about what makes Stanford so remarkable and about our potential for continued leadership will be invaluable. I look forward to an ongoing dialogue about how best to support the spirit of innovation and quest for discovery that are hallmarks of Stanford and Silicon Valley.

In the midst of a rapidly changing health care landscape, integrated efforts by the three partners in Stanford Medicine—Stanford Health Care, the School of Medicine and Stanford Children’s Health—will be key to our success. The importance of physician leaders being at the table in these discussions cannot be overstated. As we grapple together with complex issues, I view my role as seeking multiple perspectives and broad input, ensuring transparency in sharing the information and analysis that inform major decisions, and bringing focus to our collective efforts.

I am passionate about quality, both in technical delivery and in service, as well as in perceived quality and satisfaction among patients. This area provides especially important opportunities to apply core principles. It starts with choosing the right tools with which to measure quality, making the data available to the entire team, and then holding ourselves accountable. I have seen excellent results with this approach and look forward to an inclusive process in which I will often ask, “How can we best do this together?”