Q&A with Kevin Mahoney

This conversation has been edited and condensed for length and clarity. 

What aspects of healthcare are you currently focused on?

Using technology to shape the future of healthcare. AI, machine learning, and automation are streamlining everything from diagnostics and treatment plans to routine tasks that take time away from patient care. Personalized medicine is also a priority.

Using genetics and biotechnology, we can increasingly tailor treatments to patients with greater precision. Telemedicine and digital health continue to grow, making care more accessible than ever. We’re also working to make healthcare a better experience for clinicians by removing administrative burdens and helping people start their careers faster, more affordably, and with more flexibility. Looking ahead, technology will transform the way we deliver care and work.

What is Penn Medicine doing to adjust to changing federal funding priorities?

Research funding advances the ways we prevent, diagnose, treat and cure diseases.

Breakthroughs like CAR T cell therapy, the mRNA technology behind COVID-19 vaccines, and gene therapies for blindness and rare diseases were made possible at Penn Medicine through sustained federal support. Our scientists, doctors and trainees carefully steward these resources to ensure better health for all Americans. As an organization, we’re focused on future-proofing so that we can adapt to unexpected challenges like funding changes, economic shifts and other pressures, and continue to make discoveries and deliver care that benefits people everywhere.

What are some of Penn Medicine’s recent under-the-radar accomplishments?

In the U.S., getting healthcare can feel like a tangled web of long waits, travel, and disrupted schedules, along with the burden of illness. That’s why we’re creating a blueprint for accessible care by building connections across communities, so everyone gets the treatment and support they need, when and where they need it. We’ve added a seventh acute care hospital to our system and are investing in outpatient care, telehealth, and home care. We’re opening a new outpatient center in Montgomeryville, launching a proton therapy center in West Philly, expanding cancer care in New Jersey, and deploying a mobile mammogram van across the region. At the heart of it all, these efforts are bringing world-class care closer to home.