Anthony Suchman, MD, MA, FACP

As a health services researcher on the faculty of the University of Rochester, Tony studied patient-clinician relationships, medical decision-making, physician satisfaction, and the spiritual dimensions of medical care. Through his teaching and writing (more than 90 articles and book chapters and the book “Partnerships in Healthcare: Transforming Relational Process”) he has become a leading proponent of a partnership-based clinical approach known as Relationship-Centered Care.

After 15 years of academic pursuits, he became interested in healthcare organizations, particularly how administrative processes and the behavior of leaders affect staff members, patients and processes of care. To explore the potential of integrated healthcare systems to engage patients as active partners and to provide coordinated, effective and humane care, he led the formation of the Highland Physicians Organization and was its first Executive Director. He also helped to establish the Strong Health Managed Care Organization and was its first CEO and Chief Medical Officer.

Tony’s current work focuses on organizational change and how people can work together more effectively across all levels of healthcare. He works with clinicians, administrators, patient advocates and board members in health care organizations worldwide to advance the practice of Relationship-Centered Administration, the organizational behavior and culture needed backstage to support staff members in providing Relationship-Centered Care to patients and their families. He has pioneered applications of the Relational Coordination Survey — a research tool that measures how teams coordinate complex interdependent tasks — in improving team performance and work environments.

Tony chaired the board of the American Academy on Communication in Healthcare from 2000-2008 and is currently a board member of Brandeis University’s Relational Coordination Research Collaborative.

His most recent book, “Leading Change in Healthcare: Transforming organizations using complexity, positive psychology and relationship-centered care,” co-authored with David Sluyter and Penny Williamson, was published in 2011 by Radcliffe Publishing of London and New York.