Robert Kuramoto

Dr. Robert Kuramoto is a Managing Partner of QLK who actively works on all levels of C-Suite leadership searches in hospitals, medical groups and academic medical centers with a focus on physician executives. He currently serves on the New England Journal of Medicine’s Advisory Board for physician recruiting. He has experienced the evolution of healthcare through his father’s life as a rural Midwestern doctor and now in his own career as a physician and healthcare executive. He was the founder of the Physician/Hospital Institute (a think-tank on integration) and has been a healthcare advisor for a Big Five global consulting firm. As a frequent national speaker, strategist, search consultant and facilitator for healthcare institutions, Dr. Kuramoto has discussed leadership and governance, clinical integration, and future trends for physicians, hospitals, multi-specialty medical groups and academic medical centers. Dr. Kuramoto has held leadership roles in both the physician and hospital worlds. On the physician side, he has been both the Assistant Medical Director and Medical Director of a 100-physician, multi-specialty group practice. On the hospital side, he served as Chief of Staff of his hospital as well as trustee on the boards of directors of this hospital and its system. Dr. Kuramoto has also served as a national board member of SCL Health System, a 12-hospital health system based in Denver, Colorado. He is also on the national board of the Institute for Diversity in Health Management and has been the chair of the Catholic Health Association Committee for Diversity & Health Disparities. Beyond the usual physician leadership roles with hospitals, he was appointed to the Illinois Hospital Association Board of Directors, the American Hospital Association (AHA) Regional Policy Board, along with both the AHA Strategic Policy Planning Committee and the AHA Committee on Hospital and Medical Staff Governance. He currently serves on the Catholic Health (Hospital) Association Board of Directors. He was the recipient of the 2002 Excellence in Service Award for Health Care awarded by the Illinois Hospital Association and is a fellow of the Institute of Medicine of Chicago. Dr. Kuramoto has practiced in the field of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery with a focus on facial cancer reconstruction for 35 years and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He received his MD from the University of Iowa and his specialty training at Indiana University.