What We Know About Atul Gawande

After his appointment as the CEO of Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, JP Morgan (ABJ) health venture in June, the question on everyone’s mind was: What’s Atul Gawande’s first move?

The Council Perspective: To be successful, it seems that Gawande needs to balance two priorities: health promotion/disease prevention and purchasing high-value care. He plans to address those priorities through the construction of high performance networks, facilitation of lower cost sites of care and an examination of the pharmaceutical industry, specifically intermediaries.

While Gawande is known for his persuasive storytelling abilities and top-level strategy contributions, he is less known for his tactical skills. Thus, the ABJ venture needs to round out its executive team to operationalize these ideas. Overall, though, Gawande’s appointment signals the desire among three major players to re-imagine corporate healthcare.

Click here for more on Gawande, how others in the industry are reacting to his selection and an overview of the obstacles he currently faces.