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Balavenkatesh Kanna leads Downstate hospital as CEO
He previously led the Bronx VA medical center and brings over two decades of experience.
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Malvika Choudhary - Thu, 26, Mar 2026
- 17:30 EDT
- 23
Balavenkatesh Kanna / VA Bronx health care
Indian American physician Balavenkatesh Kanna joined SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University as chief executive officer of the University Hospital and vice president of hospital affairs.
Kanna joined Downstate after serving as medical center director of the James J. Peters Bronx Veterans Affairs Medical Center, where he led a tertiary-care academic health system serving veterans across the Bronx, northern Queens and Westchester County.
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He brings more than 20 years of executive leadership experience in academic medicine and large urban safety-net health systems.
At Downstate, he is expected to lead the continued modernization and revitalization of University Hospital, including implementation of recommendations from the Downstate Community Advisory Board.
Those plans include expanding and modernizing the emergency department, improving financial performance, and developing a new ambulatory care center along with a state-of-the-art ambulatory surgery center.
The university said he will also focus on strengthening patient safety, accountability, staff support and community engagement in Central Brooklyn.
Before joining the Bronx VA medical center, Kanna held several senior leadership roles at NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln Medical Center, including chief operating officer, associate chief medical officer and chief patient safety officer.
In those roles, he worked on quality and regulatory performance, operational and financial stability, access to care and patient safety initiatives. He also helped lead the institution through the COVID-19 pandemic in the South Bronx.
Kanna also spent 16 years on the Council for the Affiliate Dean at Weill Cornell Medical College while concurrently serving in executive roles at Lincoln.
In that capacity, he supported graduate medical education, faculty development and research growth. His scholarly work has focused on health disparities, quality improvement and population health.
Before Kanna assumed the role, Patricia A. Winston served as interim chief executive officer of University Hospital. Downstate credited her with helping maintain continuity across clinical and administrative functions during the leadership transition.
Kanna earned his medical degree from Coimbatore Medical College in India, completed his internal medicine training at NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln, and received a Master of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is board-certified in internal medicine and is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American College of Healthcare Executives and the New York Academy of Medicine.
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