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June 2026 ANKIT BHARAT, MD, NAMED NM CHIEF CLINICAL OFFICER, THORACICAnkit Bharat, MD, has been named chief clinical officer, thoracic. His new role reflects the breadth of services provided by Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute and his proven leadership as a clinical innovator.
In this role, Dr. Bharat will work to develop and disseminate best practices in thoracic surgery, interventional pulmonology and pulmonary medicine throughout Northwestern Medicine and across the globe. Here, Dr. Bharat discusses his vision for innovation in thoracic care. How has your work prepared you to take on additional responsibilities as chief clinical officer, thoracic? Northwestern Medicine has been my professional home since 2013, and everything I have been able to accomplish here is built on the trust of this institution and the colleagues who work alongside me every day. Over the years, I have come to organize every decision around three priorities: patients, people and program (the 3 Ps). If we take care of our patients first and take care of the people who care for them, the program takes care of itself. That philosophy was shaped at Northwestern Medicine, and it is the one I bring to this role. What is your vision for your role as chief clinical officer, thoracic, and what do you see as an initial area of focus? Since I became chief of Thoracic Surgery in 2019, we have built a culture where we do not accept that a problem is unsolvable. Our goal has never been simply to improve existing treatments. It is to bring entirely new solutions to patients who have been told there are none. That is what it means to be a destination of hope, and I want Northwestern Medicine to be that destination for the world. But hope should not require a long drive. We continue to work to build a truly integrated thoracic service line, so that a patient at any Northwestern Medicine hospital has access to the same protocols, the same multidisciplinary expertise and the same outcomes as a patient at the academic medical center. The innovation we are known for should reach patients close to their homes, with care and support delivered by the colleagues they already know and trust. Will you continue to see patients and perform surgery in your new role? Caring for patients is my first love, and I do not ever see that going away. I also love learning from our colleagues and experiencing the energy in every one of our hospitals. It has been humbling to watch academic medical centers across the country refer their patients to us, often for conditions they had no other pathway to treat. When respected peers entrust us with their patients, they are trusting the program our entire team has built. That trust extends across the whole system. Our outcomes are consistent at every Northwestern Medicine hospital, and our community teams deserve enormous credit for that. They deliver deeply personalized, efficient care, and they prove every day that world-class thoracic care is not defined by a ZIP code. What is the best leadership advice you’ve ever received? I will share a concept that has evolved from many great pieces of advice. A car may run beautifully, but if the smallest spark plug malfunctions, the car will not move. We can perform an extraordinary surgery, but we cannot discount the role every person plays in creating a high-quality outcome. The second half of that lesson matters just as much. An engine works because every part does its job without being told how. As a leader, I feel my job is to set the destination and clear the road, then hand people the keys. That is why people sit at the center of our approach. Seeing things through many different lenses is what makes our team great, and when everyone understands they are part of the journey, our shared success is much more likely. |
Ankit Bharat, MD, Executive Director of Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute, Harold L. and Margaret N. Method Endowed Chair, Chief of Thoracic Surgery, Chief Clinical Officer of Thoracic, Professor of Thoracic Surgery, and Pulmonary and Critical Care
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