Obama tops ranking of the 100 most powerful people in healthcare

President Barack Obama was voted the most powerful person in healthcare by readers of Modern Healthcare, the nation's leading weekly healthcare business news magazine. Obama, whose name has become inextricably linked with healthcare reform, topped the magazine's annual ranking of the 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare.

"Think about healthcare reform. Now, try to think about healthcare reform without Obama. You can't. It doesn't work," said Modern Healthcare Editor David Burda. "We think our readers, regardless of their position on healthcare reform, made the right choice."

The ranking is based on Modern Healthcare's eighth annual reader poll on the movers and shakers of the more than $2 trillion-a-year healthcare industry.

Many members of Obama's healthcare reform team also made this year's list. They include Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the Dept. of Health and Human Services; Nancy-Ann DeParles, director of the White House Office of Health Reform; and Peter Orszag, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Many newcomers to the annual ranking come from outside the healthcare industry. They include a number of patient safety advocates who are using personal medical tragedies as a launching pad for making care safer for all patients.

"Healthcare isn't just for insiders anymore, and our readers recognized the growing influence of nontraditional leaders over the direction of the healthcare delivery system," Burda said.

The complete ranking of the 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare for 2009 appears in the Aug. 24 issue of Modern Healthcare. The ranking also appears on the magazine's Web site, ModernHealthcare.com, at http://www.modernhealthcare.com/100mostpowerful.