Not far from Walter Reed and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), there’s a military base in Bethesda, Maryland, that houses another prestigious medical institution, the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences (USU). Established in 1972, USU trains the...
Lessons On Worker’s Comp: An Overlooked Part Of American Healthcare
Workers’ compensation was the nation's earliest form of social insurance, originally covering federal workers in hazardous industries in 1908. Today, workers’ comp insurance covers 130 million employees whose wages total $6.5 trillion. The cost of coverage varies by...
Lessons from the Yale School of Medicine
In 1931, more than a century after the Yale School of Medicine (YSM) was founded, the school instituted a unique approach to medical education. Specifically, it did away with exams and grades. Medical school, after all, should be about acquiring knowledge, experience...
Lessons from Revisiting Kaiser Permanente
Since stepping down as CEO of The Permanente Medical Group (TPMG) this summer, I have returned to nearly half of the Kaiser Permanente medical centers in Northern California and met with more than 4,000 physicians. I was invited each time to speak about the lessons...
Lessons from the Golden Heart Awards
I was just in New York City, where I attended the annual Golden Heart Awards, hosted by God’s Love We Deliver (GLWD), a not-for-profit created 32 years ago when a woman began delivering food on her bicycle to a man dying from AIDS. It was my first opportunity to...
Lessons on MACRA & the Alphabet Soup of Healthcare Payment
On Friday, I spoke at the Second National MACRA MIPS/APM Summit held in Washington D.C. Under the leadership of Peter Grant, and co-chairs Donald Crane, Harold Miller, Dr. Barbara McAneny and Dr. Kavita Patel, this program focused on educating attendees on the new...
Lessons on Drug Prescribing from NPR’s 1A
This week, I was invited to participate in an hour-long panel discussion on the NPR show 1A alongside with two other physician leaders, Dr. Victoria Sweet and Dr. Aneesh Singla. Our topic: The challenges patients face in getting the right medication, understanding the...
Lessons from Zubin Damania, aka ZDoggMD
One of the most interesting and unique individuals I have ever met is Zubin Damania, aka ZDoggMD. A UCSF and Stanford trained physician in internal and hospital medicine, ZDogg is a brilliant healthcare innovator and remarkable entertainer. I first heard him speak at...
Lessons from the National Association of ACOs Fall Conference
More than half of the country's 525 Medicare ACOs count themselves as members of the National Association of Accountable Care Organizations (NAACOS), where I had the pleasure of speaking on Oct. 5. The participating organizations are at the cutting edge of healthcare...
Lessons from the Brookings Institution
I recently had the privilege to participate in a panel discussion at the Brookings Institution with two of the nation’s leading healthcare writers and observers: Eric Patashnik, co-author of the new “Unhealthy Politics: The Battle over Evidence-Based Medicine,” and...









