We don’t often write stories about executive appointments and departures, but it’s rare that so many happen at once. The first few days of December have been one of those rare times, when so many top people at healthcare and tech organizations were on the move, or will be soon.
The biggest name in the news is Cleveland Clinic CEO Dr. Toby Cosgrove. No, Cosgrove isn’t leaving the venerable organization, but he will be one of 16 business leaders on President-elect Donald Trump’s President’s Strategic and Policy Forum.
That group includes several others with interests in healthcare, including forum Chairman Stephen Schwartzman of private equity firm Blackstone and IBM CEO Ginni Rometty; Rometty is scheduled to deliver the opening keynote of HIMSS17 on Feb. 20. Boston Consulting Group CEO Rich Lesser, J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Walmart chief Doug McMillon also could be considered indirect heavyweights in healthcare.
“This forum brings together CEOs and business leaders who know what it takes to create jobs and drive economic growth,” Trump said in a statement.
In South Florida, the board of Broward Health fired interim CEO Pauline Grant after Grant had been named in a kickback scandal. Grant denied the charges, but the health system hired two outside law firms to investigate.
“They conducted an independent investigation and they advised of their conclusion that there is a probable violation of the federal anti-kickback statute and that Ms. Grant is implicated in that matter,” Broward Health General Counsel Lynn Barrett told the Fort Lauderdale-based Sun Sentinel.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
The board voted to bring in a private management firm to run the troubled health system, the South Florida Business Journal reported.
Another troubled entity, Zenefits, is losing its CEO, David Sacks, after less than a year at the helm. He will stay on as chairman of the health insurance broker and reportedly will be joining Trump’s transition team, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Apple has seen some executive movement as well. Bloomberg reported Friday that Yoky Matsuoka, hired in May to lead HealthKit, ResearchKit, CareKit and other healthcare initiatives, has left the company. Neither Apple nor Matsuoka would comment.
In the federal government, Dr. John Jenkins, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of New Drugs, will retire on Jan. 6. His decision comes just three months after Jenkins and others within the FDA publicly disagreed with the agency’s decision to approve Exondys 51 for treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Photo: Martin Barraud/Getty Images
