IHI Names New Leader

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) this week announced that Kedar Mate, MD, will take over as its new president and CEO. Effective July 1, Mate will succeed current president and CEO Derek Feeley, who announced in January that he was leaving the organization to spend more time with his family in Scotland.

Mate is currently the IHI’s chief innovation and education officer. IHI Board Chair and CEO of Northwell Health, Michael Dowling, who led the multi-month executive search process, said in a press release: “We are thrilled to announce Dr. Mate’s appointment. Kedar is a perfect match to lead IHI into its next phase of work. He has the full confidence of IHI staff and the Board.”

“It is an honor to be named IHI’s next president and CEO,” Mate said in the release. “Time and again throughout my years with IHI, I have been in awe of the work undertaken by our staff, fellows, faculty, board members, and our many partners around the world to improve the safety and quality of health care, and the health and wellbeing of their communities. This is a pivotal time for all of us as we confront simultaneous clinical and financial challenges and the need to make good on the commitment to improving equity in all our endeavors. Even with the difficult times of the past few months, I’ve witnessed the courage, dedication, and effectiveness of IHI’s partners and the achievement of remarkable results with patients, families, and communities. IHI is absolutely committed to achieving better care and better health for every person and every community we have the pleasure of serving.”

Mate previously led IHI’s programs in South Africa and the Middle East and has also worked with Partners in Health and the World Health Organization. In addition to his responsibilities at IHI, Mate is an internal medicine physician and is faculty in the Department of Medicine at Weill-Cornell Medical College. His scholarly work has focused on health system design, healthcare quality, strategies for achieving large-scale change, and approaches to improving value. In addition, Mate has been serving as the senior executive for the groundbreaking Age-Friendly Health Systems movement, which aims to have 1,000 healthcare practices and health systems engaged with transforming quality of care for older adults in the U.S. by the end of this year.