Laura Medford-Davis, MD: Closing the Leadership Gap from Clinician to CEO скачать в хорошем качестве

Laura Medford-Davis, MD: Closing the Leadership Gap from Clinician to CEO

In this episode of Leadership Rounds, Oxeon’s Dr. Reena Pande sits down with Laura Medford-Davis, MD, MS, a practicing emergency physician and Partner at McKinsey & Company, to unpack one of healthcare’s most urgent leadership challenges: the disconnect between physician leadership ambition and CEO representation. Laura shares her path from clinical training to health services research, federal policy work, and ultimately McKinsey, where she leads ⁠clinician-focused work⁠ and co-leads clinical operations. Together, Reena and Laura explore why clinicians are often perceived as “not ready” for top leadership, how that perception becomes self-reinforcing, and what both individuals and institutions can do to build a stronger clinician-to-CEO pipeline. They also discuss how clinical training is a “double-edged sword”: it develops exceptional strengths (diagnostic reasoning, team leadership, difficult conversations) but can create friction in executive settings that reward speed, iteration, and comfort with uncertainty. Finally, Laura shares why physician leadership matters even more as healthcare faces mounting operational pressure (and as AI accelerates the need for strong governance and clinical guardrails). More on Laura:   / laura-medford-davis   More from Reena: LinkedIn:   / ⁠⁠⁠⁠   Substack: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://reenapande.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📍 Learn more at Oxeon.com #leadershiprounds #prescribingleadership #conversationswithclinicians #clinicians #leaders #leadership #leadershipdevelopment #healthcare #healthcareexecutive #clinicianexecutive #entrepreneurship #health #innovation #healthcareinnovation #clinicianleadership #digitalhealth Key Moments Laura’s career pivot: from idealized medicine to system-level change Why physician voices are often absent in key decisions The “physician CEO” data and why it matters Perception gaps vs capability gaps Translating clinical excellence into executive leadership Building institutional pathways: mentorship + rotations + sponsorship Chapter markers 00:00 – Welcome + why physician leadership matters 01:17 – Laura’s origin story: the “behind the curtain” moment 02:27 – Research → policy → why those levers felt limited 04:41 – “McKinsey as an on-the-job MBA” 06:09 – What Laura leads at McKinsey: physician work + clinical ops 08:46 – Two surveys: frontline physicians vs physician leaders 10:19 – The physician CEO gap: aspiration vs representation 15:19 – The “cycle of exclusion” + mentorship/sponsorship gaps 19:47 – Clinical strengths that translate to exec leadership 22:59 – Two-way vs one-way doors: decision-making reframed 26:40 – Where physicians feel strong vs where others doubt them 29:30 – Individual vs institutional responsibility: what changes next 33:21 – MBA vs apprenticeship: what actually closes gaps 36:29 – AI, leadership signals, and governance guardrails 38:57 – What gives optimism: the 60% interest signal 40:02 – Closing