Anthony L. Suchman, MD, MA, FACP, FAACH
Anthony L. Suchman, MD, MA, FACP, FAACH is a practicing physician and organizational consultant, and Clinical Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry at the University of Rochester. His work draws together a diversity of interests and experience to focus on the process of partnership across all levels of healthcare. After earning his BA (psychology) and MD degrees at Cornell University, he completed a residency in Internal Medicine and fellowships in General Internal Medicine (clinical epidemiology and health services research) and Behavioral and Psychosocial Medicine (mind/body interactions and medical interviewing), all at the University of Rochester. Dr. Suchman studied patient-clinician relationships, medical decision-making, physician satisfaction, and the spiritual dimensions of medical care. Through his teaching and writing (more than 85 articles and the book Partnerships in Healthcare: Transforming Relational Process) he has become known as one of the leading proponents of a partnership-based clinical approach known as Relationship-Centered Care.
After 15 years of academic pursuits, Dr. Suchman became interested in healthcare organizations, particularly how the values expressed in administrative processes and in the behavior of leaders affect processes of care. To explore the potential of integrated healthcare systems to engage patients as active partners and provide coordinated, effective and humane care, he helped to found the Highland Physicians Organization and was its first Executive Director. He subsequently helped to establish the Strong Health Managed Care Organization and was its first CEO and Chief Medical Officer. He earned an MA degree in Organizational Change, studying with Ralph Stacey at the University of Hertfordshire’s Complexity and Management Centre, and for 8 years served as the Board chair of the American Academy on Communication in Healthcare.
Currently Dr. Suchman is working with clinicians, administrators and board members in health systems in the US and internationally to advance the practice of Relationship-Centered Care. With his colleagues Penny Williamson and Diane Robbins, he founded Leading Organizations to Health, a leadership institute on organizational change in healthcare.