Warren S. Browner, MD, MPH

 (Revised 2024)

2023-present. Executive Consultant, Research and Education, Sutter Health.  Work with other academic leaders throughout the health system to expand activities in gradual medical education and research.

2009-2023. Chief Executive Officer, California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC), part of the not-for-profit Sutter Health system in northern California. CPMC, which originated as four independent hospitals in San Francisco, now consists of three acute care campuses (Van Ness, Davies, and Mission Bernal), an outpatient campus (Pacific Height Outpatient Center), the CPMC Research Institute, and several joint ventures with private practice physicians in ambulatory surgery and endoscopy. CPMC has an annual net revenue of $1.2 billion, about 5000 employees (most of whom are union-represented), and more than 1500 affiliated physicians on its medical staff.  Major tertiary and quaternary clinical programs include end-stage organ failure, in association with kidney, liver, pancreas, and heart transplantation; maternal-fetal medicine with a level III NICU; neurosciences, including interventional neurology, stroke telemedicine, epilepsy, ALS, and rehabilitation; advanced cardiovascular interventions (including EP, ECMO, VADs, and transcutaneous valve replacement); advanced gastrointestinal endoscopy; oncology; orthopedics; and microsurgery. CPMC also sponsors substantial research and educational activities (see below).

2021-2023. Area CEO, Sutter Health West Bay Hospitals.  In addition to serving as CEO of CPMC, also served as CEO for Novato Community Hospital, Sutter Lakeside Hospital, and Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital.

Major responsibilities and accomplishments at CPMC include:

• Leader of the CPMC Senior Management Team, responsible for strategic planning, capital and operating budgets, physician relations, philanthropy, employee and physician engagement, dashboard performance, and government affairs.

• Leader of CPMC 2020, a $2.7 billion rebuild of CPMC’s facilities in San Francisco (two acute care hospitals and a medical office building) that opened in August 2018 and March 2019 (ahead of schedule and under budget). Led efforts to obtain entitlements from governmental agencies and elected officials. Worked with local companies, including Salesforce, to develop initial concepts for the “Smart Hospital.”

• Deeply involved in CPMC’s $300 million fundraising campaign (Your City. Your Hospital.), including most large ($1M and greater) gifts.

• Responsible for CPMC’s physician strategies with the Brown & Toland Medical Group (an IPA) and Sutter Bay Area Medical Foundation (employed physicians). Worked with physician leaders to combine the medical staffs at CPMC and St. Luke’s Hospital.

• Developed joint venture with Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital (now Stanford Children’s Health) to provide subspecialty pediatric services at CPMC.

• Installed the Sutter EHR (Epic) simultaneously at all CPMC campuses.

• Initiated CPMC’s QD (Quality Delivery) System, a program to train managers and selected physicians in lean methodology and to revamp medical center processes.

• Champion for increased transparency, including Red Events program, which notifies all employees, medical staff, and Board members about significant medical errors at CPMC and what has been done to prevent their reoccurrence; and daily safety call involving all CPMC leaders and managers to review events of prior 24 hours and those anticipated in the next 24 hours.

• Promotion of CPMC’s efforts to provide CLAS (culturally and linguistically appropriate) services to our patients and to support our diverse workforce.

• Championed philanthropically-supported expansion of training programs to add accredited fellowships in Transplant Hepatology, Endocrinology, and Oncology, and expand fellowship programs in Cardiology and Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine.

• Serve as Chair of the Sutter Health Research Advisory Council; unofficial advisor to Leon Clark and Kristen Azar.

• Active participant in the SF Hospital Council, which has worked extensively with the Department of Public Health on various issues, most recently the City’s COVID response.

• Developed strong personal and institutional relationships with local political leaders, including Speaker Pelosi and her  healthcare staff, Representative Khanna, Mayor Breed and her staff, Senator Wiener, Assemblyman Ting,  SF City Attorney Chiu, members of the SF Board of Supervisors, and directors of state and city health departments.

2000-2009. Vice-President Academic Affairs and Scientific Director, CPMC Research Institute. Member of the Executive Management Team, reporting to the CEO. Operational responsibilities for all matters related to research and medical education, including physician recruitment. Founding member of the Service Excellence Champions at CPMC, an operational group responsible for developing and implementing policies to improve service and quality of care provided to patients, employees, and staff. Worked with CPMC Foundation on fundraising for academic programs.

• Responsible for all aspects of research at CPMC, including strategic direction, recruiting, infrastructure, and intellectual property policies.
  • Laboratory-based research emphasizes cell biology, cancer, neuroscience, and infection/immunology.
  • Major clinical research activities in hepatology/transplant, gastroenterology, cardiology, and oncology developed in collaboration with CPMC physicians.
  • Oversaw Institutional Review Board, Institutional Animal Care and Utilization Committee, Biosafety Committee, Embryonic Stem Cell Research Oversight Committee, and Conflict of Interest Committee.

• Recruited 16 new Principal Investigators in clinical research and laboratory sciences, and developed programs in pharmacokinetics, behavioral medicine, and trial coordination.

• Terminated unsuccessful programs. More than tripled funding to >$25 million annually, the majority from governmental sources. Moved most laboratory and administrative activities to a 56,000 square-foot off-campus facility in 2005.

• Directed all activities in Graduate Medical Education (GME), including CPMC- and UCSF-sponsored residency and fellowship training programs. All CPMC programs are fully accredited and fill in the match with US graduates, with 120 trainees each year and an annual budget of $12 million.

• Initiated and developed major teaching affiliation between CPMC and Dartmouth Medical School (now Geisel); CPMC became a training site for third-year core clerkships for DMS students in January 2008. Students rotate in medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics-gynecology, neurology, psychiatry, geriatrics and ambulatory medicine, and family medicine.

• Supervised activities of the Institute for Health and Healing (IHH), the Centers for Research in Clinical Excellence (a medical center program that provided start-up funding to encourage clinical researchers), the program in ethics, and the Health Sciences Library.

• Several appointments to Federal review committees, including Cooperative Studies Monitoring and Review Board of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and oversight panel of the Food and Drug Administration.

• Ongoing activities at UCSF in clinical research training, with adjunct appointment in the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics.

1997-2004: Executive Editor, American Journal of Medicine. Along with the Editor (Lee Goldman, MD), responsible for all activities of the journal, including manuscript screening (about 1200 manuscripts per year), assignment to appropriate associate editors, selection of reviewers for assigned articles, preparation of official editorial response with suggested revisions for potentially acceptable articles, editing of manuscripts selected for publications, selection of editorialists, and supervision of editorial and office staff. Redesigned the journal and increased production from monthly to semi-monthly publication schedule.

1985-2000. Full-time faculty, University of California, San Francisco, and staff physician, San Francisco Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center (SFDVAMC).

• Joined General Internal Medicine section at SFDVAMC as its first researcher; provided primary care internal medicine in a group practice model.  

• First appointed as Assistant Professor of Medicine in residence, with accelerated promotion to Associate Professor, and then Professor. Additional appointments in Departments of Epidemiology & Biostatistics and Anesthesia.

• Founding investigator in two major NIH-funded clinical research projects (Study of Perioperative Ischemia, Study of Osteoporotic Fractures). Principal investigator on several other Federally-funded projects, including effects of dietary fat on health, screening for  hypercholesterolemia, and association between bone density and stroke.

• Core faculty for the UCSF clinical research training program. Co-author of Designing Clinical Research (lead author of 5^th edition), and sole author of Presenting Clinical Research (1^st to 3^rd editions).

• Recipient of UCSF Academic Senate Teaching Award.

• Founded the Research Fellowship in General Internal Medicine at the SFDVAMC, which competed successfully with national programs (e.g., the RWJ Clinical Scholars Program).

• Appointed Chief of the General Internal Medicine Section and developed it as the largest division at the medical center, with major emphases on clinical care, research, and teaching.

• Founding co-director of the PRIME training program for internal medicine residents interested in primary care or clinical research; now the largest track in the UCSF medicine residency.

• Appointed Acting Chief of the Medical Service of the SFDVAMC, responsible for leadership of >100 physicians in the service. After a national search, selected by the Chair of UCSF Department of Medicine and Chief of Staff for the permanent position as Chief and Vice-Chair; declined offer in favor of CPMC position.

1983-85. Post-doctoral scholar, AW Mellon Program in Clinical Epidemiology, UCSF, and MPH student in epidemiology, UC Berkeley. Fields of research: cardiovascular epidemiology and risk factor modification.

1979-1982. Internal medicine resident, UCSF. President, San Francisco Interns’ and Residents’ Association. Board-certified, Internal Medicine, 1982-present.

1975-1979. Medical student, UCSF. Student representative on curriculum committee (4 years). Member, AOA. Recipient, Fife Scholarship (achievement in internal medicine).

1971-1975. Undergraduate, Harvard College. Graduated magna cum laude in Physical Sciences.