Dr. Paulus brings a unique clinical, entrepreneurial and leadership perspective to healthcare services, technology, strategy and innovation.  He is the immediate past President and CEO of Mission Health, a $2 billion integrated health system in western NC.  Under his leadership, Mission Health raised employee engagement scores to more than twice the national average and became the only health system ever designated as one of the nation’s Top 15 Health Systems in six of seven consecutive years (IBM Watson Health).​

Before joining Mission Health, Dr. Paulus was Executive Vice President, Clinical Operations and Chief Innovation Officer for Geisinger Health System, one of the nation’s most widely recognized multispecialty group practices and integrated delivery systems.  He has also been a successful health technology entrepreneur, having co-founded and served as President and CEO of CareScience, a publicly-traded care delivery analytics platform developer whose product is used by ~1,000 hospitals nationwide to optimize quality and efficiency.

​Dr. Paulus received his MD degree from The School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and his MBA, concentration in healthcare management, and BS in Economics from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He has served on diverse boards – non-profit, private equity and public companies - has published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles (including the Annals of Internal Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine and Health Affairs), and speaks nationally on the topics of health system strategy, leadership, clinical quality and efficiency, innovation and new models of care. Dr. Paulus has testified before both the US House (340b drug program) and US Senate (Stark and anti-kickback laws) and has also has been named one of Modern Healthcare’s Top 50 Most Influential Physician Executives and Leaders several times, recently among the Top 15 on that list.