Emory University named University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Vice Dean for Clinical Affairs Joon Sup Lee as the CEO of Emory Healthcare, according to a University press release from May 1. Lee will assume the position on July 1, overseeing 11 hospitals, 250 provider locations and more than 24,000 employees.
Lee will replace interim CEO of Emory Healthcare Dane Peterson, who is also president and chief operating officer of Emory Healthcare. Peterson has served as interim CEO since Sept. 1, 2022.
Executive Vice President for Health Affairs Ravi Thadhani told the Wheel he is “excited” for Lee to take on the role.
Lee received his bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College (N.H.) and his medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine (N.C.). He completed his internship, residency and fellowships at Massachusetts General Hospital, the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School (Mass.). He is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in cardiovascular disease.
Lee is interested in interventional cardiology, catheter-based valve replacement and models of care delivery, according to the University of Pittsburgh. He has also brought many hospitals together to promote collaboration in clinical care and research.
Thadhani said that Lee has clinical experience from his time taking care of patients and his ability to connect and communicate with health care providers. Thadhani added the Lee has an understanding of operational excellence. Lee is currently applying for a Georgia license, which is required to practice medicine in the state of Georgia, Thadhani added.
“He can communicate, connect with and understands the lives and the challenges of the doctors, the nurses, the nurse anesthetists and the other caregivers we have in this organization,” Thadhani said.
In conjunction with being an active clinician, Emory Healthcare will rely on Lee’s experiences in managing hospitals to operate efficiently in both operating rooms and clinics, as well as improve access to patients, Thadhani said.
“Our goal is to deliver excellent medical care,” Thadhani said. “Our goal is to take care of our employees and our goal is to ensure that our health care system fulfills the academic mission of patient care, research and education.”
Lee joined the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) in 1996 as a faculty member and has served in various leadership positions, including the chief of the cardiology division for the medical school from 2013 to 2019 and the first executive director of UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute from 2017 to 2019. Lee has also served as the senior vice president of UPMC and president of physician services since 2021, according to a University of Pittsburgh press release. He currently oversees 5,000 employed physicians and all clinically active faculty.
University President Gregory Fenves wrote in the May 1 press release that he is “thrilled” that Lee is taking on the role.
“He is a problem-solver who cares deeply about the patients and families he serves and the doctors, nurses and health care staff he works with,” Fenves wrote.
Lee wrote in an email to the Wheel that he is “honored and thrilled” to join Emory Healthcare.
“The history and tradition of Emory as an academic institution and health care leader and the commitment to excellence and innovation, combined with the outstanding faculty and staff of Emory Healthcare, make this the most desirable leadership position in health care,” Lee wrote. “I am deeply humbled to be given the opportunity.”
As an interventional cardiologist, Lee has viewed Emory as the birthplace of his field. Emory recruited Andreas Grüntzig, who performed the first human balloon angioplasty and drew many cardiologists to Emory to observe the technique, according to Lee.
“When I had a chance to meet with President Fenves, Dr. Thadhani and board leaders of Emory Healthcare and Emory University, what came through loud and clear was the unwavering commitment to the mission of providing outstanding health care for the community, to excellence, to education and to innovation,” Lee wrote.
Although he said COVID-19 is less daunting than it was in 2020, Lee noted that its impacts “seem unending” and the current period represents “the most challenging time.”
“These times also represent a unique opportunity to innovate, lead and create the care systems that will define the standard for 2030 and beyond,” Lee wrote. “The solutions won’t be easy, obvious or without bumps in the road. They will involve interdisciplinary collaboration, innovation, creativity and flexibility, ingredients that I have already seen in abundance at Emory.”
Lee also noted that he wants to respect every individual’s personal and professional development to help make Emory Healthcare both a health care provider of choice and an employer of choice.
“Our vision for Emory Healthcare will be able to deliver on the mission of providing the highest quality care with the utmost compassion while educating and training the health care workforce of tomorrow and creating innovations in health sciences that will set the new paradigm for health care,” Lee wrote. “As we do this with a patient-centered experience and equitable access for all members of our region and beyond, I believe Emory Healthcare will become the model that others in the country will learn about and emulate, much as it did with coronary angioplasty in the 1980s.”
Thadhani noted that Emory Healthcare aims to deliver excellent medical care while fulfilling academic missions in research and education.
“Dr. Lee comes into this environment coming from another academic medical center that understands the mission of research, education and clinical care,” Thadhani said. “Obviously the best-in-class kind of experience and his expertise in these areas are those we're going to rely on and lean on to improving our own system.”
