Marc A. Bard, MD, president and CEO of The Bard Group, has been nominated for Modern Healthcare’s “100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare” for 2008. He is one of 300 distinguished nominees, out of more than 14,600 candidates submitted by readers. The group includes both thought leaders and the powers who guide major healthcare organizations.

Last year, Modern Healthcare’s readers voted Sister Carol Keehan, President of Catholic Health Association—the nation's largest group of not-for-profit health care sponsors, systems, and facilities— the most powerful person in healthcare. In 2006, voters recognized Bill Gates, chairman of the board of Microsoft Corp. and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, for the “power” of the more than $9 billion in healthcare grants the foundation has distributed since its founding in 1994. This year’s nominees range from medical ethicist Emily Friedman to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Julie Gerberding, and include presidential candidates, national lawmakers, heads of major health systems, healthcare industry organizations, and government oversight groups. See the list of 300 finalists here.

Dr. Bard, who has been consulting to healthcare organizations for more than 25 years, founded The Bard Group, LLC, in 1997. Nationally recognized as an expert on physician leadership effectiveness, change management, clinical service line development, and organizational design, he leads a firm dedicated to “reinventing physician–hospital relationships”—setting the cornerstone for effective change in how healthcare is provided. He consults with leading healthcare systems, academic medical centers, faculty practices, medical groups, community hospitals, and individual healthcare executives. His work and the work of the firm focuses on physician integration, clinical service line development and strategies, and performance improvement. His research on service line leadership, which he co-authored with his partner, Dr. Andrew Epstein, was recently published in Academic Medicine, the journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Dr. Bard practiced internal medicine for eighteen years at Harvard Community Health Plan, and served as its Chief of Internal Medicine and Director of Medical Staff Development. While at HCHP, he facilitated mergers with MultiGroup and Pilgrim Health Care, initiated and developed the physician recruiting process and systems, and established HCHP’s first clinical performance dashboard.

Modern Healthcare is the leading healthcare business publication, ranked number one in readership among healthcare executives. Voting for the top 100 will continue through June 27 at Modern Healthcare Online. Voters do not have to log in or register, but will be asked to choose exactly ten candidates. The final ranking will be published in the August 25, 2008 issue.