FHC #78: How leadership can fix healthcare, with Dr. David Feinberg

This episode kicks off season eight of the Fixing Healthcare podcast.

The guest: Dr. David Feinberg, currently chairman of Oracle Healthcare, former CEO of Cerner (acquired by Oracle in 2022), and previous head of both Google Health and Geisinger. This is Dr. Feinberg’s third appearance on the show. He joined hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr in season one (episode 3) and season six (episode 41).

The focus of Season 8: How better, bolder leadership can fix American healthcare

As Dr. Pearl explains at the top of the podcast: “The medical and academic leaders featured on Season 8 of Fixing Healthcare will discuss the difference that strong leadership can make, both for patients and clinicians. I know their insights will be educational and inspirational. Hopefully, 2023 will be the year that our country takes the strides needed to make American healthcare, once again, the best in the world.”

In the episode, Dr. Feinberg and the hosts discuss:

  • Getting patients to prioritize healthy choices and lifestyle changes
  • Advice for future physician leaders
  • What Google knows about maximizing public health
  • Why tech has a trust problem among patients and doctors
  • The benefits of teams and teamwork
  • The government’s role in helping people make healthy choices
  • Why good communication improves medical outcomes
  • How leaders can rebuild medical care around the patient, not the clinician
  • Whether it’s possible to achieve better quality, cost and access in healthcare—all at once?
  • What is “human capital management” in medicine?
  • Where healthcare leadership can be most effective (be it academic medical centers, community health systems or elsewhere) and the downsides of each

Helpful links:

David Feinberg joins Fixing Healthcare season 1 (episode 3)

David Feinberg joins Fixing Healthcare season 6 (episode 41)

A retrospective on Cerner’s transition to Oracle

The man behind Larry Ellison’s health care gamble

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Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of a new book about medicine’s invisible yet highly influential physician culture. Check out “Uncaring: How Physician Culture Is Killing Doctors & Patients.”

Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.