Challenge looms for new Partners CEO David Torchiana

When his colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital toasted David F. Torchiana's recent promotion to the top job at Partners HealthCare, they hoisted cans of Coca-Cola. Not the toast you would expect from a gathering of top medical professionals, but a gesture of respect and jocular affection for the man they call "Torch," who blends toughness and professional rigor with a regular-guy demeanor — and the beverage to go with it. The 60-year-old heart surgeon, who doesn't drink coffee, has been known to "walk into a meeting at 6:30 a.m. with a can of Coke," said Peter L. Slavin, president of Harvard-affiliated Mass. General.