Shoeb Sitafalwalla, MD, was appointed chief strategy officer (CSO) for Advocate Aurora Health, a system of 26 hospitals, more than 500 outpatient locations, 8,300 doctors, 22,000 nurses, and 74,000 team members. His unique blend of experiences and skills as a practicing cardiologist, Chief Medical Officer, clinical innovations, analytics and systemwide executive leader position him well to move into this critical role reporting directly to President and CEO, Jim Skogsbergh.
Advocate Aurora serves three million unique patients, and is recognized for clinical excellence in a number of areas. One of the top ten health systems in the country, Advocate Aurora has been named among Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s “Top Workplaces” and Modern Healthcare’s “Best Places to Work.” Three of its hospitals are recognized among Watson Health’s “100 Top Hospitals,” and 14 are recognized by U.S. News & World Report. As a member of the senior leadership team, Shoeb will lead efforts to develop, help implement, monitor, and, when necessary, modify the overall system strategic plan of Advocate Aurora Health. He will also lead the system’s innovation and design efforts that support the transformation of care delivery and health system operations, working across the enterprise, as well as externally to enhance the reach of the health system across multiple states.
Dr. Sitafalwalla has been part of the Advocate Health Care system since beginning his residency training in 2007; most recently, he served as medical director of the South Asian Cardiovascular Center, and as chief medical officer of Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital. As CMO, Dr. Sitafalwalla led initiatives to create a better health system by increasing throughput, improving margins, and reducing waste, while also focusing on quality and safety, and supported this work through new protocols based on data he processed and a data algorithm he designed. He also brought together a multidisciplinary team to redesign the health system’s LiveWell Center concept in the face of the burgeoning virtual care shift, incorporating a reduced clinical footprint, whole-person health and wellness strategies, and transformative community outreach. Dr. Sitafalwalla created the South Asian Cardiovascular Center from the proposal stage forward, combining community outreach, clinical protocols, and data, with a focus on wellness, to engage a population that the organization had not previously been engaging; in this work, he partnered with young South Asian entrepreneurs, technology providers, advocacy organizations such as the American Diabetes Association and American Heart Association, the media, and the Chicago Department of Public Health. His success led to nomination to the Presidential Leadership Scholars Program and to a place on the health system’s team for the acquisition of Walgreens’ Take Care clinics.
During his 14-year tenure with Advocate Aurora, Dr. Sitafalwalla has served as clinical faculty for the cardiovascular disease fellowship, as a member of the quality improvement/clinical integration committee for Advocate Physician Partners, as the clinical innovation lead for the Health Equity Council, and as the strategy and innovation project lead for Advocate Aurora Analytics. He has also continued to practice clinically as a noninvasive cardiologist.
Dr. Sitafalwalla holds a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an MD from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He completed both his internal medicine residency and his cardiovascular fellowship at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in suburban Park Ridge, Illinois.
Dr. Sitafalwalla and his wife are the parents of two young children, and the family enjoys traveling and spending time outdoors. Dr. Sitafalwalla is also very involved with his faith community, through which he volunteers in public relations activities to build bridges with other faith communities.
Quick Leonard Kieffer’s President, Steve Derks, led the nationwide search assisted by Adrienne White-Faines and Jamie Cassedy.
