Top 5 HealthLeaders CMO Stories of 2025

Read the most popular CMOs stories published on the HealthLeaders website this year.

CMOs are a focal point in the healthcare analysis coverage generated by HealthLeaders. Click on the headline links below to read the Top 5 CMO stories published by HealthLeaders this year.

1. Tower Health CMO: Advanced Practice Providers Poised to Lead Care Teams

Advanced practice providers (APPs) such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants are going to play leading roles on care teams more often, says the former CMO of Tower Health.

With a physician shortage across the country, health systems, hospitals, and physician practices have turned to APPs to maintain access to medical services. Historically, CMOs and other healthcare leaders have thought that physicians should lead care teams under all circumstances, but that view is changing, according to Suzanne Wenderoth, MD, who served as executive vice president and CMO of Tower Health until November 2025.

2. CMO Strategies for Improving Physician Engagement and Clinical Efficiency

This story highlights a webinar of HealthLeaders' The Winning Edge series. A four-member panel of experts shared how to successfully engage physicians and boost clinical efficiency.

Physician engagement is essential to drive positive clinical outcomes for patients as well as to achieve physician satisfaction. Clinical efficiency is crucial for healthcare organizations to establish an effective workplace environment and to control costs.

3. The Ending of the Physician Era. Begin the Age of the APP.

This HealthLeaders cover story explores the growing utilization of advanced practice providers on care teams as health systems, hospitals, and medical groups grapple with physician shortages in many specialties.

The resulting change in care team design is forcing CMOs and other healthcare executives to think about how they manage their physicians to ensure a productive workplace and achieve positive clinical outcomes.

Ravi Thadhani, MD, is the executive vice president of clinical affairs and CMO of Cedars-Sinai Health System and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Photo courtesy of Cedars-Sinai.

4. The Exec: Good Clinical Care and Sustainable Finances Are Compatible

CMOs can help boost a health system's financial sustainability while simultaneously promoting care quality and access, according to Ravi Thadhani, MD, MPH, who became executive vice president of clinical affairs and CMO of Cedars-Sinai Health System and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Oct. 15.

At health systems and hospitals, high quality care and sustainable finances can go hand in hand, Thadhani told HealthLeaders. "If we deliver the best care, that means we are delivering on the promise of prevention, which brings down the total cost of care," Thadhani said. "It means that we are reducing hospital readmissions, which brings down the total cost of care. It means that we are reducing infection rates in hospitals, which brings down the total cost of care."

5. How to Improve Onboarding of Advanced Practice Providers

This story highlights how Sentara Health has launched a robust onboarding program for advanced practice providers who work in the health system's primary care practices.

Sentara Health launched an intensive onboarding program for new primary care APPs in July 2024. Retention was a top goal of the program, according to Stephanie Zeiber, MPA, PA-C, the health system's director of advanced practice provider development.