David W. Johnson

Dave powers 4sight Health with an unflinching determination to create status-quo busting dialogue and action in healthcare reform. His innate desire to bring about change, coupled with his tremendous proficiency across health policy, academic medicine, economics, statistics, behavioral finance, disruptive innovation, organizational change and complexity theory, has led to his recognition as an insightful, incisive globally acknowledged authority on market-driven reform.

Dave is a prolific writer on healthcare’s pro-market transformation. He is the author-in-residence at MATTER, the Chicago-based healthcare incubator, and published the critically acclaimed book Market vs. Medicine: America’s Epic Fight for Better, Affordable Healthcare in 2016. McGraw-Hill published Dave’s book The Customer Revolution in Healthcare: Delivering Smarter, Kinder, Affordable Care for All in September 2019. As a speaker, Dave plays the role of rebel, challenger, industry historian, investor and company evaluator to push audiences forward. Watch his bio video.

Dave left a 28-year career in investment banking to create 4sight Health. As an investment banker, he managed over $30 billion in healthcare revenue bonds, led significant strategic advisory engagements for health systems. He specialized in capital formation, asset-liability management, enterprise risk analytics and new business-model development. Dave is also currently an investor and/or advisor for several early- or mid-stage healthcare companies including Curate Health, GaussSoft, HealthiPass, Link Capital, Medspeed and MultiScale Health Networks.

Dave holds a Bachelors of Arts degree in English Literature from Colgate University and a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Harvard University. Dave was drawn to service at a young age as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Liberia, West Africa and a United States Presidential Management Intern.

His civic and professional affiliations have included Harvard Medical School (Visiting Committee); the Chicago Council on Global Affairs (Board, Executive and Finance Committees); the University of Chicago (Harris School of Public Policy’s Visiting Committee, Student Engagement Sub-Committee Chair and the Urban Health Lab); the Health Management Academy; Harvard School of Public Health; CHRISTUS Health (Audit Committee); the British-American Project (U.S. Chair); and Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Center (Finance Committee Chair).

Dave is a consummate thought leader who enjoys reading and writing. He is no health slouch as a vegan who often bikes to meetings, who’s run ten marathons. He also loves traveling.

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Innovation
Healthcare Trials, Tribulations and Potential Triumphs for Chicago’s New Mayor
On May 15, 2023, the city of Chicago swore in Brandon Johnson as its 57th mayor. Chicago is… Read More
By May 23, 2023
System Dynamics
Delivery Failures and Nursing Burden (Part 2): Advanced Logistics to the Rescue
This is Part 2 of a series on nursing burdens in healthcare. Part 1 looks at ways healthcare… Read More
By and May 16, 2023
Policy
Delivery Failures and Nursing Burden (2-Part Series)
This is a series that looks at ways healthcare is wrestling with major logistical and financial challenges related… Read More
By May 14, 2023
Policy
Academic Medicine: Where Privilege Compounds Organizational Dysfunction
Academic medicine combines healthcare with higher education, the two sectors of the American economy that have exhibited outsized… Read More
By May 9, 2023
Innovation
The R.N. and the Controller: Two Revolutionaries Battle the Healthcare Industrial Complex®
The 1970s was a dark period in U.S. history. Watergate, the energy crisis, environmental degradation, stagflation, rising crime,… Read More
By April 25, 2023
System Dynamics
In ‘American Hospitals’ Pride Comes Before the Fall
The film “American Hospitals: Healing a Broken System” premiered in Washington, D.C., on March 29. This documentary exposes the… Read More
By April 13, 2023
Consumerism
Why Healthcare’s Cupboard is Bare — Its Funding Gravy Train has Run Out of Steam
Gravy train is a railroad term that originated in the early 1900s. It described a well-paid train run… Read More
By April 6, 2023
Innovation
Steve Klasko is Feelin’ Alright
In the summer of 2022, Steve Klasko asked me to write a preface for “Feelin’ Alright,” his book… Read More
By March 23, 2023
System Dynamics
Reimagining Healthcare Staffing: Partnership-Focused, Data-Informed, Nurse-Centric
In 2006, Warren Buffett quipped that, “GM is a health and benefits company with an auto company attached.”… Read More
By March 16, 2023
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