In October 2024, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Cedars-Sinai Health System appointed a new president and CEO, Peter L. Slavin, MD. A nationally recognized leader in academic medicine, Slavin succeeded Thomas M. Priselac upon his retirement.

Slavin’s tenure is already marked by expansive growth in the face of unpredictable change. Slavin, who served previously as president of Massachusetts General Hospital, is also the inaugural holder of the David and Meredith Kaplan Presidential Chair, established with a $10 million gift to Cedars-Sinai.

Here, Slavin shares his goals for advancing world-class care, research and education while the healthcare sector faces many uncertainties.

Peter L. Slavin, MD: Cedars-Sinai is firing on lots of cylinders and advancing care, discovery, education and service to the community. The rising cost of healthcare in the United States is a major public health issue. I want to make sure we are innovating methods to deliver more economically sustainable care in every possible way.

We’re facing pressures from both Washington and Sacramento that challenge our efforts, and we must figure out a way to address those headwinds. This institution was founded 123 years ago to combat discrimination at a time when patients were being denied healthcare and Jewish physicians were denied training. From the very beginning, we’ve been an institution that cares for everyone and welcomes everyone to our workforce. We’re facing some very painful forces that attempt to slow or reverse our progress.

PLS: Our research program has made great progress over the past few decades. We’re among the top 10 NIH-funded independent research hospitals in the country (those not directly affiliated with a university or a medical school). And we invest considerable resources in research from philanthropy and other sources. The research program still has room to grow, and I’m excited about our work in harnessing the power of the immune system to fight cancer and other diseases and in using artificial intelligence and other forms of information technology to make healthcare better, safer and more accessible.

PLS: Engaging in education and discovery research in a very serious way is part of being an academic institution. Education is so important, not only because our graduates go on to make significant contributions to science and medicine, but also because while they’re here, they ask great questions that encourage us to think more deeply. Fostering students in as many disciplines as possible ultimately makes us better at what we do.

Read: Cedars-Sinai Pioneers a New Era for AI Education

PLS: This organization has evolved, as many have, because patients need more than tertiary and quaternary care: They need a full range of services. We are creating an accessible, seamless system of care within the region to offer patients convenient, cost-effective primary and secondary care in community practices and hospitals. This also ensures our medical center has the capacity to deliver the tertiary and quaternary care that only a place like this can deliver. We’re expanding our virtual care as well: Video visit technologies and digital monitoring capabilities provide a great opportunity for people to receive excellent care from the comfort of their homes.

Read: The Virtues of Virtual Care

PLS: I was impressed with Cedars-Sinai before I got here, and I’ve been even more impressed since I arrived. The people are innovative, flexible and bound together by an incredible commitment to making a difference in the lives of our patients, and I want to do everything I can to sustain and further enhance that culture. It’s also impressive how much people here love this place. There’s an incredible amount of dedication, which is a great strength.

PLS: My favorite restaurant in Los Angeles is a place called Royal Lobster, which for years was located solely in Koreatown in a former Texaco gas station. They make the best lobster roll I’ve ever had, and I’m from New England, which is where lobster rolls were born. They’re perfectionists. I love it.