Robert Pearl

Dr. Robert Pearl served as CEO of The Permanente Medical Group (Kaiser Permanente), the nation’s largest medical group, for 18 years. During his tenure, he led 12,000 physicians and 43,000 staff, overseeing the nationally acclaimed care of more than 5 million Kaiser Permanente members on the east and west coasts.

Named one of Modern Healthcare’s 50 most influential physician leaders, Pearl is an advocate for the power of integrated, prepaid, technologically advanced and physician-led healthcare delivery. More than 60,000 readers subscribe to his newsletters on healthcare, including his widely read Monthly Musings on American Healthcare.

Pearl is a clinical professor of plastic surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine and a faculty member at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he teaches courses on strategy and leadership and lectures on information technology and healthcare policy.

His latest book, ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine, debuted as an Amazon top new release and bestseller in 2024, with all profits benefiting Doctors Without Borders. He is also the author of Mistreated: Why We Think We’re Getting Good Healthcare—And Why We’re Usually Wrong, a Washington Post bestseller that provides a roadmap for transforming American healthcare, as well as Uncaring: How the Culture of Medicine Kills Doctors and Patients, which earned the prestigious Kirkus star.

Dr. Pearl is a Forbes healthcare contributor and a “Top Voice” on LinkedIn, where he publishes the popular newsletter Breaking the Rules of Healthcare. He hosts two podcasts, Fixing Healthcare and Medicine: The Truth, which routinely appear in the top 100 rankings for health podcasts. As a healthcare and technology expert, Pearl has been featured on CBS This Morning, C-SPAN, MSNBC, NPR, and in TIME, AP, USA Today and Bloomberg News. He has published more than 100 articles in medical journals and contributed to numerous books.

A frequent keynote speaker at healthcare and medical technology conferences Pearl has addressed the Commonwealth Club, the World Healthcare Congress, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s National Quality Forum and the National Committee for Quality Improvement (NCQA).

Board certified in plastic and reconstructive surgery, Pearl received his medical degree from the Yale University School of Medicine, followed by a residency at Stanford University.

From 2012 to 2017, Pearl served as chairman of the Council of Accountable Physician Practices (CAPP), which includes the nation’s largest and best multispecialty medical groups, and participated in the Bipartisan Congressional Task Force on Delivery System Reform and Health IT in Washington, D.C.