Dr. Toby Cosgrove
President & CEO
Cleveland Clinic
As CEO, Dr. Cosgrove presides over a $8 billion healthcare system including the Cleveland Clinic main campus, 10 community hospitals, 18 family health and ambulatory surgery centers, Cleveland Clinic Florida, the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas, Cleveland Clinic Toronto, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi and Cleveland Clinic London (opening 2020). His leadership has emphasized patient care and patient experience, including the re-organization of clinical services into patient-centered, organ and disease-based institutes. He launched major wellness initiatives for patients, employees and communities.
Under his leadership, Cleveland Clinic has been ranked the #2 hospital in America (U.S.News & World Report) and is one of only two hospitals named among “America’s 99 Most Ethical Companies” (Ethisphere Institute).
Dr. Cosgrove received his medical degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville and completed his clinical training at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Brook General Hospital in London. His undergraduate work was at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass.
He was a surgeon in the U.S. Air Force and served in Da Nang, Republic of Vietnam, as the Chief of U.S. Air Force Casualty Staging Flight. He was awarded the Bronze Star and the Republic of Vietnam Commendation Medal.
Joining Cleveland Clinic in 1975, Dr. Cosgrove was named chairman of the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular surgery in 1989. Under his leadership, Cleveland Clinic’s heart program was ranked No. 1 in America for 10 years in a row (U.S.News & World Report).
He has published nearly 450 journal articles, book chapters, one book and 17 training and continuing medical education films. He performed more than 22,000 operations and earned an international reputation for expertise in all areas of cardiac surgery, especially valve repair. As an innovator, Dr. Cosgrove has 30 patents filed for developing medical and clinical products used in surgical environments.
In 2014, Dr. Cosgrove authored The Cleveland Clinic Way: Lessons in Excellence from One of the World’s Leading Health Care Organizations, which takes an in-depth look at today’s healthcare system. It describes the eight trends shaping the future of medicine in this country to be more efficient, more effective and more affordable than it is today. The book acknowledges the challenges facing the industry but takes a “strongly optimistic” view of what lies ahead by illustrating how the Clinic is helping to shape the future of medicine by working toward one goal: putting patients first.
Dr. Cosgrove is a sought-after speaker worldwide. He has addressed the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting at Davos, Switzerland, and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, in Washington, D.C. He is regularly quoted and featured in national magazines and newspapers, including a cover story in Time, and major articles in Newsweek, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. He has appeared on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, “The Charlie Rose Show” on PBS, and other national media outlets.
Dr. Cosgrove was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (2013). He is a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (2015) and Castle Connolly National Physician of the Year.
Recent honors include the Deming Cup and Horatio Alger Award. He is a 2016 Fortune Businessperson of the Year (#14), and has topped Inside Business’s “Power 100” listing for Northeast Ohio. He is highly ranked among Modern Healthcare’s “100 most powerful people in healthcare” and “most powerful physician executives,” and is an inductee of the Cleveland Medical Hall of Fame.
Dr. Cosgrove has been consulted by successive presidential administrations, serving on the Veterans Administration Commission on Care (2015).
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