In 2012, he took that leap, becoming global medical director for Johns Hopkins Medicine International. Looking back, he is confident it was the right choice.
Today, Dr. Hassoun serves as chief executive for international at Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai, overseeing international patient services, global strategy and operations for the system.
Here, he shares his insights on the evolving landscape of healthcare leadership, the importance of a global mindset and how to prepare the next generation of leaders for future challenges.
Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What are the most frequent leadership challenges you face, and what strategies have been most effective in overcoming them?
Dr. Heitham Hassoun: We’re in a complex field that bridges very diverse cultures. For me, it comes down to being authentic. Whenever I can, I’m going to tell you how I see it or feel it. Sometimes, that’s difficult for people. Not everyone wants that level of frankness.
My trust in authenticity comes from a combination of my natural personality and growing up in the prototypical hardworking immigrant family. There wasn’t a lot of passivity! I try to meet everyone where they are, to be true to myself but also diplomatic when the situation calls for it. I’m an Aramco brat, and if you know what that is, you pretty much know who I am. We were Americans living and working in this melting pot in the early days of Saudi Arabia, in the middle of the desert, and we worked together to recreate a uniquely American environment where everyone thrived while we produced oil for the world.
Q: Can you share a pivotal moment when you took a risk, and what you learned from the experience?
HH: Taking the leap from surgery into global healthcare. It’s not that I was unhappy at the time. The opposite — I love being a surgeon. I had the good fortune to get one of the top vascular fellowships in the country at Northwestern, then Julie Freischlag brought me in at Johns Hopkins. I had terrific funding from NIH, received the Lifeline Award — it was all very satisfying. But somewhere inside I had this desire to get into international. It was instinctive. Somehow, I knew it was my future. There were plenty of good people around me telling me I was crazy. They thought it was a huge mistake to take everything I had put into academic surgery and give it all up for an unknown. So it was definitely a risk, probably the biggest one I’ve ever taken. But it has worked out in every way I could have hoped. I’ve found the balance that works for me.
Q: What do you hope your legacy will be as a healthcare leader?
HH: Think and act globally. It’s easy to fall into the habit of seeing things from our own local perspective. That’s a natural reaction to our day-to-day challenges — what’s best for my organization? How will this affect my team?
Americans bring a lot to the table, but we also tend to see ourselves as the center of the universe. I want people to look beyond the here and now, to remember how truly interconnected we all are. And there is no realm where our interconnectedness is more important than health. Amazing things happen when we bridge cultural divides to pool our knowledge and resources. That’s the legacy I’m after — for all of us in our field to ask ourselves “What is my role in healthcare for humanity globally?
Q: How can current leaders prepare the next generation for success in healthcare over the next five years?
HH: Same principle. Teach our future leaders to think and act globally. We’re incredibly fortunate to be part of a field that exists to benefit the health and well-being of our fellow man, so we have to really focus our awareness and our resources on that goal. We need leaders with the courage to be passionate about what really matters. They don’t have to be perfect; they just have to take the skills and experience they have and be persistent. When you work hard and take chances, things open up in ways you couldn’t have foreseen.
There are four lessons I try to share whenever I can. First, know your customers and strive to understand and honor their values and traditions. Second, only sell products and services you can provide at a high level of quality. Third, teamwork — we are always better together. And fourth, change is inevitable, so our success will depend on our willingness to embrace the unknown.
One more thing: we need leaders with fortitude. We’re here to bring the highest possible level of healthcare to people where they live, and we have to have the fortitude to do whatever it takes to move us in that direction.
Q: What are the most pressing leadership challenges healthcare will face nationally or internationally in the next three to five years?
HH: We’re currently in an era of global instability, which inevitably spills over and creates challenges in healthcare. Is turbulence in the world a new phenomenon? Absolutely not. We’ve seen these patterns throughout human history. Things come around in cycles — financial, pandemics, international strife. Specifically in the next few years, I think we’ll continue to see significant geopolitical turbulence. Eventually the world will come back around to a more stable dynamic — I’m sure of it — but in the meantime we need leaders who stay balanced and reasonable when things are unpredictable. We need to keep a sense of perspective. Beyond that, there is a lot on the plus side. We’re seeing revolutionary technologies emerge and they have tremendous potential for improving healthcare. If you step back and look past the uncertainty, there are huge reasons to be optimistic.
