ATLANTA – Emory Healthcare, the most comprehensive academic health system in Georgia, has announced the appointment of Amaka Eneanya, MD, MPH, as chief transformation officer for Emory Healthcare, effective July 16.
The newly created position of chief transformation officer will have a focus on enhancing both patient and clinician experiences at Emory. In that respect, Eneanya will lead the development of systemwide strategies to bolster the patient experience through improved patient access, increase community engagement and outreach and enrich the overall clinician experience at Emory. She will also collaborate with Emory’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Office to prioritize strategies that center around health equity, diversity and inclusion in the delivery of patient care.
“Amaka is a forward-thinking leader who is well versed in transformational strategy and operational structure and will help us move Emory Healthcare to the next level,” says Joon S. Lee, MD, CEO of Emory Healthcare. “We look forward to working with her in our continued pursuit to transform and strengthen patient access and the patient experience.”
Eneanya comes to Emory from Fresenius Medical Care based in Bad Homburg, Germany, where she served as Head of Strategy and Operations in the Global Medical Office. While there, she led planning and implementation of medical sustainability, enterprise financial risk and global health equity strategies. Before that, she was on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, where she was an NIH-funded researcher, health equity leader and passionate patient advocate.
“I am honored to join Emory Healthcare and the skilled clinicians and team members who provide exceptional care to patients and the surrounding community,” says Eneanya.
A nephrologist by training, Eneanya’s clinical and research efforts have focused on patient-centered care and health equity. Her most recent research resulted in a change in national and international standards for identifying individuals with and at risk of kidney disease by making a common kidney function test, known as eGFR, race-neutral. The advancement means African American individuals could be identified and treated earlier for kidney disease. This work has been published in leading academic journals including The New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association, and cited often.
Eneanya received a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, a medical degree from Meharry Medical College and a master’s in public health from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She completed her internal medicine and nephrology training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. She is board certified in nephrology and internal medicine and is a fellow of the American Society of Nephrology.
In 2020, Eneanya was recognized as a 40 under 40 Leader in Minority Health by the National Minority Quality Forum. In 2021, she received the Radhika Srinivasan Award for Humanism & Professionalism from the Department of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.