The primary role of the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of a medical device, pharmaceutical, or biotech company previously fell into one of three main categories: Clinical Strategy & Execution, Patient Safety and Risk Management. Today, circumstances such as a patient’s increasing power to influence or decide on the choice of diagnostic or curative product, the growing power of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and the decreasing tolerance for imperfect clinical outcomes – real or perceived – is rapidly changing the skill set required to be a successful CMO. It is, therefore, critical that CEOs and Boards of Directors recognize that their choice of CMO could be the difference between the success and failure of a product or, perhaps, the entire company.