Ralph de la Torre, MD

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Ralph de la Torre, MD – CEO, Steward Health Care

Dr. Ralph de la Torre is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Steward Health Care Systems LLC. Steward is the largest private hospital operator in the United States and a national leader in implementing a new, integrated model of health care delivery that keeps patients healthy and close to home. Within two years of becoming CEO of Caritas Christi, Dr. de la Torre dramatically improved the system. During this time, Dr. de la Torre implemented changes in governance, operational structure and strategy, leading to the creation of a fully integrated community care organization with significant participation in risk contracting. Before joining Caritas, Dr. de la Torre was the founder and CEO of the Cardiovascular Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and of Cardiovascular Management Associates, one of the nation’s first totally integrated systems for treating cardiac patients. At the same time Dr. de la Torre was Chief of Cardiac Surgery at BIDMC and a Harvard Medical Faculty Physician at BIDMC. He has founded several health care-related businesses and has numerous issued or pending patents. A frequent commentator on national health care policy issues, Dr. de la Torre has bylined and/or been featured in BusinessWeek, Fortune and CNBC, among others. He was recently voted one of the 25 most powerful physician executives in the United States byModern Healthcare magazine. Dr. de la Torre graduated from Duke University in 1988 (B.S.E.), where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi, and from a joint program between Harvard Medical School (M.D.) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.S.) in 1992.