Henry Ford Health

We were thrilled to be a part of America's Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit for a 10th year – and to show off our new float, which replicates our Future of Health project and Detroit hospital expansion! Robert Riney, our President & CEO, and Dr. Steven Kalkanis MD, our EVP & CEO of Henry Ford Medical Group & Henry Ford Hospital – along with our longtime and new team members from our recent joint venture – proudly accompanied our float down Woodward Ave. Happy Thanksgiving to all, especially our incredible team working today. ?? To join our team, email [email protected].

?? MVP in the lab: Amon-Ra St. Brown?? ?? Detroit Lions player of the game: Dr. Chris Clark??

We recently welcomed WJR 760 AM's the Focus with Paul W. Smith to Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital, broadcasting live about the impact and generosity of our donors. Highlighting our incredible milestones from this year - including the launch of our historic campaign to raise $750 million, the soon-to-open behavioral health hospital in West Bloomfield and our clinical advancements in emergency care - the broadcast included interviews with Robert Riney, Mary Jane Vogt, EMILY SEXTON, Brian Ahmedani, Manu Malhotra and Steven Rockoff D.O., MBA, FAEMS, EMT-P, CMTE. Listen to their interviews The Great Voice.

From "Twin Tuesday" to "Decades Day", this week we celebrated our shared bond and collective spirit as we head toward the holiday season with leadership rounding and festivities. Spirit Week here never disappoints! ??

Congratulations to Dr. Nakia Allen, our pediatrician and director of undergraduate medical education, on being named community assistant dean for the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine’s Detroit Campus! In announcing her appointment, College of Human Medicine Dean Aron Sousa described Dr. Allen as “an energetic advocate for children.” Dr. Allen was drawn to pediatrics because “children have this amazing energy, even when they’re sick.” The Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University Health Sciences partnership “has amazing possibilities,” Dr. Allen said, for expanding medical education and improving the health of Michigan residents. She graduated from the College of Human Medicine in 2007 after earning her bachelor’s degree in microbiology from the University of Michigan. She succeeds Dr. Eileen Hug, who recently retired as the founding community assistant dean for the Detroit Campus.

We are proud to share that Madelyn Van Tassel, our Vice President and Executive Director of the Cancer Service Line, and Evan Bailey, our Director of Surgical Specialties, are Crain's Detroit Business "40 Under 40" honorees! Madelyn, who Steven N Kalkanis, MD calls the most “gifted, accomplished and aspirational young administrative executive leader” in our organization, has led our cancer treatment expansion, including the new Brigitte Harris Cancer Pavilion and the creation of our Pancreatic Cancer Center. Focused on operational excellence, she oversees a division worth $1.87 billion in gross patient revenue, and she’s billed as the “mentor in chief” for new recruits in the cancer service line. Evan is responsible for improving operational throughput while navigating the nuances of skilled surgeons and vulnerable patients. Leading 5 surgical divisions, he's focused on optimizing the environment for our caregivers and getting more patients into surgery faster. Now patients needing breast surgery can now see a physician within 5 days of seeking an appointment, cutting wait times for general surgery consultation by 50%. Crain’s has highlighted for more than 3 decades CEOs, founders, innovators, community champions and others younger than 40 who are making significant impacts. Read more about the 2024 class of "40 Under 40" in Crain's Detroit Business.

As a national leader in health equity initiatives, we’re proud to share that Henry Ford Innovations has partnered with Premier Inc. and AstraZeneca in the Uncover CKD - Care Collective, which is working to address the rising rates of chronic kidney disease and improving care for underserved and marginalized communities. This partnership is focused on reducing health disparities by co-designing solutions to raise awareness and advance the prevention, detection and treatment of undiagnosed chronic kidney disease. With 1 in 7 U.S. adults affected by this disease - and 90% unaware of their condition - the initiative leverages real-world data and AI-powered technology to identify at-risk patients, particularly in socially disadvantaged populations.

Since opening the doors in 1915 to Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, our organization has had numerous transformations — the most recent being our joint venture with Ascension Michigan which reestablished us as the largest health system in the Detroit area with a combined revenue of $12 billion. The partnership has expanded our organization to include 550 care locations, 13 acute-care hospitals, 3 behavioral health facilities and 50,000+ team members — with 99% of Ascension Michigan employees included in the joint venture choosing to join our team during the transition. "We cannot provide incredible care to our communities if our internal talent doesn't feel genuinely welcomed, genuinely supported and genuinely engaged with us as an employer," shared Robert Riney, our President & CEO. "I think everything stems from that. And I'm still stunned by that statistic because there are always people who will listen to a pitch from a competitor during a time of change. It told me that people really believe in what we're doing." During the joint venture, we simultaneously launched our most ambitious growth initiative: a fund-raising campaign that will help support our historic $2.2 billion campus expansion — the single largest healthcare investment in Detroit's — and our — history. "We've got amazing healthcare workers here, incredible physician talent, and diverse populations that drive us to find innovative solutions," said Bob. Renewed national intrigue in Detroit has only strengthened its collective spirit of evolution. "There's some people that talk about 'the comeback,'" Bob says of Detroit. "And to that, some people say: 'We never left.'" Read Bob's full interview with Becker's Healthcare.

Our pancreatic cancer researchers and clinicians are making new inroads to treat the KRAS mutation – something that’s never been done before. With 90% of pancreatic cancer patients harboring a difficult-to-treat KRAS mutation developed within cancer cells, our world-renowned cancer expert Dr. Philip Philip says new cutting-edge therapies being developed by our team have the potential to deliver the breakthrough patients need.

Our interventional cardiologists at our Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit led a national study, called the SAFEMCS, which showed patients monitored with the Early Bird? Bleed Monitoring System - the only FDA-approved device for real-time bleed monitoring – during high-risk, complex heart procedures had fewer bleeding complications, marking progress in bleed detection technology for better patient care. “This study is the first of its kind to specifically evaluate bleeding complications in patients undergoing protected percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI),” said Dr. Babar Basir, our director of Acute Mechanical Circulatory Support and co-principal investigator of the study. The study included 203 patients from multiple U.S. locations and showed that Early Bird? is effective in detecting and reducing bleeding complications during protected PCI or protected stenting, using mechanical circulatory support to temporarily support the heart's pumping function. Our interventional cardiologist Brittany Fuller MD, FACC, FSCAI, FASE, was the institutional principal investigator and the highest enroller in the study. “I’m proud of Henry Ford Health’s contributions to this study, which has shown a significant reduction in bleeding complications,” said Dr. Fuller.