100 Most Influential People in Healthcare - 2022

After taking the top job at Atrium in 2016, Woods led the 40-hospital system on an ambitious growth trajectory. In 2020, he oversaw a merger with Wake Forest Baptist Health that included the system’s medical school in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. A second medical school campus in Atrium’s headquarters city of Charlotte, North Carolina, is set to open in 2025, which would establish an innovation corridor between the two locations. Another top priority for Woods is reducing health disparities. He has called on other leaders to follow his four-pronged strategy: Meet patients where they live and work, invest in health equity analytics technology, address acute social needs and focus on the social determinants of health. In December, Woods became co-CEO of Advocate Health, the combined organization resulting from the merger of Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health.