Indian American Dr. Prathibha Varkey Named President of Mayo Clinic Health System
- An alumnus of Christian Medical College, Vellore, she will lead strategy and operations of the health system’s 17 hospitals and nearly 50 community clinics across Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Dr. Prathibha Varkey, 47, has been named president of the prestigious Mayo Clinic Health System, effective Aug. 16. She will partner with Chief Administrative Officer, Mary Jo Williamson, to lead the strategy and operations of the health system’s 17 hospitals and nearly 50 community clinics across Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. She succeeds Bobbie Gostout, who retired from Mayo Clinic in December 2020.
“We’re very excited to welcome Dr. Varkey back to Mayo Clinic. She’s well-positioned to help us realize Mayo Clinic Health System’s vision to be the nation’s leading community health system, setting the standard in every dimension as an innovative, forward-looking system of care with top quality, safety, affordability, diversity and performance,” said Mayo Clinic president and CEO Gianrico Farrugia told the Mayo Clinic News Network.
Varkey, who is board-certified in internal medicine and general preventive medicine, previously practiced medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, for 11 years. During her tenure, she also led several initiatives in quality improvement, faculty development and medical education, and managed consumer-facing health care business products. “The opportunity to lead Mayo Clinic Health System personally excites me because of the potential to make a transformational impact in partnership with the communities we serve. Being with patients and communities in times of wellness and illness, and bringing hope and healing is deeply meaningful, as well as humbling and an honor,” Varkey told the Mayo Clinic News Network.
She left Mayo Clinic in 2013 to serve as CEO of Seton Clinical Enterprise in Austin, Texas. Since 2016, Varkey has served as president and CEO of Northeast Medical Group within Yale New Haven Health in New Haven, Connecticut.
She earned her medical degree from Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, in Tamil Nadu. She joined CMC in 1991 and apart from excelling in medical studies, she was also good at quizzing, essay competitions and sports, according to her batch mates as reported by The Hindu, and she even represented the college in volleyball.
Friends from her alma mater recall her as a person very dedicated to her work, excelling in her academics. “We joined MBBS in 1991. She has been academically brilliant and very much research oriented. She was very focused from the start. All our batch mates congratulated her after hearing this news,” said Chandra Singh, an urologist and associate director of finance at CMC, speaking to The Hindu.
Anna Pulimood, principal, CMC Vellore, told The Hindu that in CMC focus on the health of the community is given importance. “Dr. Varkey must have been tuned to public health issues right from her graduation days. This is because our students are expected to identify health problems of villages and come up with solutions. Since Dr. Varkey would have such a bent of mind, she has been able to take up such a big responsibility,” she said.
Varkey completed her internal medicine residency at Yale New Haven Health’s Hospital of St. Raphael. She has a Masters of Public Health from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, a Masters of Health Professions Education from University of Illinois Medical Center, an M.B.A. from the University of Minnesota, and an honorary Masters of Arts from Yale University.