“It’s so important to acknowledge and engage the next generation.” – Board Chairperson Dr. Patricia Gabow
Lown Institute Board Chairperson Dr. Patricia Gabow is a national leader in delivery system innovation and the care of vulnerable populations. She retired in 2012 after 20 years as CEO of Denver Health and Hospital Authority, an integrated health care system serving one of the poorest populations in the state of Colorado. She is the author of over 170 publications including three books, The Lean Prescription, TIME’S NOW for Women Healthcare Leaders, and The Catholic Church and Its Hospitals. Her new book, The Women’s Guide to Healthcare Leadership, will be out in the summer of 2026. Gabow graduated from Seton Hill University and Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She is professor emerita of the University of Colorado School of Medicine and a Master of the American College of Physicians.
Lown Institute (LI): You’ve had a long career working in medicine and the healthcare sector. Can you share a bit about your history with us?
Patricia Gabow (PG): I grew up in an Italian immigrant family in rural Pennsylvania. My father was killed in World War II when I was a baby, and my mother and I lived with her parents and her brother for many years. There were important mentors early in my life. My grandfather was one. He had an old saying which I’ve followed all my life: “If you have a gift and you don’t use it, no confessor on earth can absolve you.” Another mentor was the nun who was the head of biology department in college. When I worked as her student research assistant at the Woods Hole Biological Laboratories, I watched her tuck her habit up and wade into the water with the male scientists. This showed me that you don’t have to change who you are to be a success.
When I was in seventh or eighth grade, I knew I wanted to be a doctor. My family supported me, even though at that time women, particularly from rural communities and immigrant families, weren’t going to medical school. I was one of six women in a class of 125. I trained in internal medicine and nephrology.
At Penn at that time, there were really two distinct services: one for the poor, which had big open wards with just curtains between patients and suites with tea service for the rich. I always wanted to work on the wards, so I knew I wanted a career at an institution that was committed to vulnerable populations. I also knew that I wanted to be part of an academic institution. I found the perfect home at Denver Health.
When I started, there was no position for a nephrologist. So, when I started the kidney service, I worked full-time for a half-time salary for over a year until a salary line was created. Later I became Chief of Medicine and then Chief Medical Officer. In 1992, I became CEO, serving in that role until 2012. At the same time, I also had an academic career becoming a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado, where I had a large NIH grant for 15 years on polycystic kidney disease. I had a physician’s dream job – being a clinician, a researcher, a teacher, and a leader. I was blessed.
LI: How did you get involved with the Lown Institute and what attracted you to become a board member?
PG: I was invited to a Lown conference as a speaker. Afterwards, I was telling my son about the experience and how positive I found it, and he said, “Mom, I think you found your people.” So, when I was invited to join the board in 2017, I immediately said yes. What really connected with me was institute’s belief that healthcare institutions have a broad set of responsibilities beyond clinical outcomes. That’s a key pillar, to be sure, but we need to demand more from healthcare. Lown was looking at how we care for patients and communities using a broad set of data points.
LI: When you look back at your time as Board Chairperson, is there anything you’re particularly proud of that the institute has done or accomplished?
PG: There are several things that I would bring out. One is the Lown Institute Hospitals Index (LIHI) — now in its seventh year — which started just before I became Board Chairperson. Prior to the index, nobody was really ranking healthcare institutions across a broad array of data. Since its initiation, LIHI has become a very important activity that’s matured over time. This aligns with the idea mentioned earlier that a successful healthcare system or hospital should be measured on more than one dimension: outcomes, yes, but also on equity, inclusivity, overuse, community benefit, and value. Seeing LIHI mature and achieve validity has been really gratifying.
The second was the Bernard Lown Award for Social Responsibility, which was established during my tenure. It’s so important to acknowledge and engage the next generation because they need encouragement on their journey. Seeing and being part of the process to pick the winners—those young people who reflect the values of not just the Lown Institute but of Dr. Lown himself—is inspiring.
At the same time, we also have to acknowledge the bad actors in our midst. Many organizations shy away from this. But the Lown Institute with the annual Shkreli Awards calls out the egregious behavior that exists in healthcare, and this is just as important as holding up the exemplars.
LI: As someone who was the head of a large healthcare system, how do you describe LIHI to other hospital leaders?
PG: Healthcare is an important pillar of a society with a multi-dimensional set of responsibilities. What the index does is to look at all those dimensions, enabling you to know that you are fulfilling your duty of serving the entire community. What I would say to other healthcare leaders — and I saw this at Denver Health—is that we need to have broad measures of success. Having good outcomes, equity, and value: that’s what we should aspire to achieve. We want people to rise to the occasion and do their best. That’s what the LIHI ranking asks people to do.
LI: Are there new or existing areas that you feel the Institute should focus upon?
PG: If a family member is ill, most people want to do whatever they can to help them, even if it’s something with a one-in-a-million shot with a lot of side effects. It’s one setting where overuse can occur. I think Lown can help the public better understand what medical overuse is and the downstream problems it often creates. Also, medical debt is a major problem and is likely to get worse, especially given this president’s cuts in care for the poor. This is an area where Lown contributes information and understanding.
Overall, I do think we need to continue to grow and mature the Lown brand by getting our message out on issues like these in a way that connects with people. We need to add a face to all the data we compile through projects like the Hospital Index. And we have to raise the necessary funds to support all our initiatives. Without the money, there is no road to travel.
LI: We’re in a time of ever-shifting sands in healthcare. What gives you hope in this moment?
PG: The reality is that the world has been through dark times in the past and has come out of it. If we take the geologic perspective, we’ve had six extinction events in history and emerged each time with an ecosystem that was more sophisticated, more robust, and more diverse. What Martin Luther King Jr. said—that the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice—seems to be true from my experience. As a scientist, I find comfort in saying that we can evolve not just physically but morally, emotionally, and societally over time.