Stanford Medicine’s Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer, and Senior Associate Dean, Priya Singh, on Training Leaders at the Edge of Change

When health leaders gather in Geneva this November for the International Hospital Federation’s World Congress, much of the conversation will focus on innovation. Artificial intelligence, curative therapies, and new financing models are reshaping how care is delivered and how health systems operate. But beneath the surface of that progress lies a more human question: how can health systems cultivate leaders capable of steering through disruption that is as technological as it is cultural?

Those questions will be front and center at this year’s Congress, where Stanford Medicine is serving as lead sponsor of the Innovation Hub and several of its leaders will take part in sessions on leadership and innovation. They are also at the heart of how Stanford Medicine is thinking about its own future. Priya Singh, the organization’s Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President, has thought deeply about these issues.

“We’re entering a moment where technical fluency alone isn’t enough,” Singh says. “Leaders need to understand how technology intersects with ethics, workforce, and community trust. The real challenge for leaders is not only understanding these changes, but guiding others through it.”

Rethinking leadership for a changing world

From her seat as Stanford Medicine’s Chief Strategy Officer, Priya Singh has watched the pace of change in healthcare accelerate across every front: from how care is delivered, to how future clinicians are trained, and how research moves from lab bench to bedside and back. That vantage point has prompted her to ask how leaders can keep pace with transformation that touches every corner of the health ecosystem. It has also guided Stanford Medicine’s effort to explore how innovation and leadership intersect, and how institutions can prepare people, not just systems, for the future of health.

At the core of that inquiry is a recognition that the skills health leaders needed a decade ago are no longer sufficient. The future demands a new kind of leadership mindset, one that blends scientific literacy with imagination, systems thinking, and a tolerance for uncertainty. Singh describes this as thinking like a futurist: cultivating the ability to look beyond the immediate horizon and make choices that keep organizations adaptive, responsible, and human-centered.

“We’re not just asking what the next big technology will be,” she says. “We’re asking what kind of leadership mindset can make those technologies meaningful for people.”

Preparing for uncertainty

Stanford Medicine’s Health Futurists programme emerged as one response to that question. Designed for senior and emerging leaders across the global health ecosystem, the programme brings together participants from hospitals, non-profits, and the private sector to examine the forces reshaping medicine—from artificial intelligence and curative therapies to healthcare economics, climate change, and social determinants of health.

The goal is not to predict the future but to prepare for it. Through immersive modules, dialogue with Stanford faculty and guest speakers, and scenario-based learning, participants explore how to lead amid volatility, ambiguity, and change. “Healthcare has always been about navigating uncertainty,” Singh says. “What’s changing is the scale and speed of that uncertainty. Leaders today need to be both strategic and imaginative to see around corners and to anticipate impact before it arrives.”

The programme’s name reflects its philosophy: that effective leadership in medicine increasingly depends on the ability to think like a futurist. Rather than reacting to disruption, it means cultivating the capacity to interpret weak signals, connect ideas across disciplines, and turn insight into action.

From ideas to action

These questions will take center stage in Geneva, where Singh’s team will host a discussion on how innovation can expand access to world-class cancer care. The session is part of the IHF Congress’s Innovation Hub, a space dedicated to exploring the practical realities of change: how new tools and models can be implemented responsibly and equitably across diverse systems. Other Stanford Medicine leaders, including Paul King, CEO of Stanford Medicine Children’s Health and Michael Lim, Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery, will join conversations about the evolving relationship between technology, education, and patient care.

For Singh, the value of gatherings like this lies in testing ideas against real-world complexity. “Innovation doesn’t happen in isolation,” she says. “It happens within systems, and systems are led by people. The more we can bring together voices from different contexts, the better we can understand what progress actually looks like.”

Stanford Medicine’s work through the Health Futurists programme reflects that same ethos: bridging the gap between vision and execution. By equipping leaders to think systemically and act with foresight, the programme aims to help organizations navigate uncertainty rather than be defined by it.

“The future of health isn’t just about predicting what’s next,” Singh says. “It’s about building the capacity to adapt, together.”