Welcome to this week's Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of hirings, firings and retirings throughout the industry. Please submit the good news—or the bad—from your shop, and we will feature it here at the end of each week.
Bakul Patel, the former head of digital health at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, has been sniped by Alphabet-backed Google to serve as senior director of global digital health strategy and regulatory.
Announced by Patel on LinkedIn, the move comes a month after Patel ended a 13-year run at the regulator.
During his tenure, the FDA launched a center of excellence to oversee digital health products such as smartphone apps, wearable devices and software-based treatments, which he was tapped to lead. He also helped develop the agency's framework for reviewing artificial intelligence products and an action plan detailing a multi-pronged approach to advance oversight on artificial-intelligence- and machine-learning-based medical software.
He joins Google as the company ramps up its focus on artificial intelligence and machine learning health tools for consumers and providers alike. The new role will have him developing and leading the tech company’s unified digital health and regulatory strategy.
Cerebral
Kyle Robertson is out as CEO of Cerebral, the embattled behavioral health startup now contending with an investigation by the Department of Justice over its prescribing practices.
The cofounder’s departure was announced Wednesday and effective immediately. Chief Medical Officer and President Dave Mou, M.D., was tapped to take over as the company’s new CEO.
Robertson launched Cerebral in January 2020 and led the company through the COVID-19 pandemic—which saw increased demand for behavioral health services and loosened telehealth regulations—as well as its rapid growth including a $300 million series C round in December.
Per Wall Street Journal reports, Robertson described efforts by Cerebral’s board to replace him as illegal. In a memo to the board, he reportedly said the board was seeking to make him a scapegoat and that they had encouraged his company to begin prescribing Adderall.
Mou told the company’s prescriber team in an email that it would end prescriptions of most controlled substances to new patients beginning May 20 to “prepare for the expiration of the [pandemic] waiver to the Ryan Haight Act.”
Rush University System for Health
Omar Lateef, M.D., is adding the new title of Rush University System for Health (RUSH) CEO alongside his current responsibilities as president of the health system president and CEO of its flagship RUSH University Medical Center.
Lateef joined the academic health system in 2005 via a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at RUSH University Medical Center. He later served as its chief medical officer before taking on the top role in 2019.
His time leading the medical center saw top-quality rankings from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Leapfrog Group and others.
He also accepted a Medal of Honor from Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot in recognition of the pandemic response from the hospital and its staff.
Lateef’s promotion was announced Wednesday and will become effective July 1, with outgoing CEO K. Ranga Rama Krishnan serving as a senior advisor to Lateef.
HCA Healthcare
Keith Zimmerman has been appointed as president of HCA Healthcare’s Kansas City-based MidAmerica Division effective June 13, according to a release from the for-profit system.
Zimmerman has been with the company since 2011 when he was hired on as senior vice president and chief development officer for its Medical City Dallas acute care hospital. He then spent over four years as CEO of its Medical City Children’s Hospital and, since 2017, has served as CEO of Medical City Arlington in Texas.
Zimmerman’s roughly three decades in healthcare have also included senior roles focused on business development across OhioHealth, Hospital Partners of America and The Hospitalist Company, among others.
The new role will place him in charge of HCA’s operations in the greater Kansas City area. This includes seven hospitals and other sites of care.
He’s taking over for Mel Legarde, who is retiring after more than 40 years with the company.
> Lifespan selected Arthur Sampson to serve as interim president and CEO following the resignation of Timothy Babineau, M.D., who will be staying with the system as an advisor through September.
> Dignity Health tapped Michael Korpiel to serve as president of its Greater Sacramento market in addition to his current role as president of Dignity Health Mercy San Juan Medical Center.
> Walgreens added two new roles to its team: Anita Patel as vice president of pharmacy services development and Rina Shah as vice president of pharmacy of the future and healthcare segments.
> Denver Health named Lorena Marquez Zimmer as its first chief impact officer.
> St. Mary’s Health Care System, in Athens, Georgia, selected Carndice Frix as vice president and chief nursing officer.
> Gainwell Technologies hired Karen Shields, the former deputy director of the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, as chief client engagement officer.
> Heart Hospital of Austin tapped Brett Matens as CEO.
> Cone Health brought on Christopher Cornue as chief strategy officer.
> UPMC North Central Pennsylvania President Steve Johnson will retire from the position at the end of the year.
> Elation Health announced Paul Bussi as chief revenue officer and Amanda Melander as senior vice president and head of marketing.
> Cedars-Sinai Chief Financial Officer Edward Prunchunas will be retiring at the end of June.
> Grand View Health, in Pennsylvania, selected Douglas Hughes as president and CEO.
> RWJBarnabas Health announced the retirement of Anthony Cava, the president and CEO of its Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset.
> Carrot Fertility added Risa Kagan, M.D., to its medical advisory board.