About the Lown Institute Hospitals Index

Dr. Gabow is a national leader in delivery system innovation and the care of vulnerable populations. She retired in 2012 after 20 years as CEO of Denver Health and Hospital Authority (DHHA), an integrated health care system serving one of the poorest populations in the state of Colorado. Earlier in Gabow’s career, she was an academic practitioner and medical researcher in nephrology focusing on polycystic kidney disease. She is the author of more than 130 articles, 36 books and book chapters, and a book, The Lean Prescription: Powerful Medicine for Our Ailing Healthcare System. She has received numerous awards, including the American Medical Association Nathan Davis Award for Outstanding Public Servant, the National Healthcare Leadership Award, the David E. Rogers Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Health Quality Leader Award from the National Committee for Quality Assurance, and the Distinguished Graduate Award from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine; the Gustav O. Lienhard Award from the National Academy of Medicine.  She serves on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Board of Trustees. She is a member of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence Hall of Fame and the National Academy of Social Insurance. Gabow graduated from Seton Hill University and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She is professor emerita of the University of Colorado School of Medicine and a master of the American College of Physicians.

Vikas Saini, MD is president of the Lown Institute. He is a clinical cardiologist trained by Dr. Bernard Lown at Harvard, where he has taught and done research. Dr. Saini leads the Institute’s signature project, the Lown Institute Hospitals Index, the first ranking to measure hospital social responsibility. The Index, first launched in July 2020, evaluates hospitals on equity, value, and outcomes, and includes never-before-used metrics such as avoiding overuse, pay equity, and racial inclusivity. In his role at the Lown Institute since 2012, Dr. Saini led the development of the Right Care series of papers published by The Lancet in 2017; convened six national conferences attracting more than 200 attendees annually and featuring world-renowned leaders in health care; and guided other Lown Institute projects such as the “Shkreli Awards.” Dr. Saini is co-chair of the Right Care Alliance, a grassroots network of clinicians, patient activists, and community leaders organizing to put patients, not profits, at the heart of health care. Prior to the Lown Institute, Dr. Saini was in private practice in cardiology for over 15 years on Cape Cod, where he also founded a primary care physician network participating in global payment contracts. He also co-founded Aspect Medical Systems, the pioneer in noninvasive consciousness monitoring in the operating room with the BIS device. Dr. Saini is an expert on the optimal medical management of cardiologic conditions, medical overuse, hospital performance and evaluation, and health equity. He has spoken and presented research at professional meetings around the world, and has been quoted in numerous print media, radio, and television.

Dr. David Bor is Chief Academic Officer at Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) and the Charles S. Davidson Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS). Since joining CHA in 1981, he has made major contributions to CHA as a clinician, teacher, and administrative leader. This included advancing patient care by spearheading new programs for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and community-based primary care. As Chief of Medicine for over 20 years, he recruited outstanding primary care and specialty teams. He co-founded both the Cambridge “Health of the City” program and the Institute for Community Health, which have focused on issues like childhood obesity, men’s health, and substance abuse. He led the steering committee for the Cambridge Integrated Clerkship that has revolutionized clinical medical education and is being adapted world wide. In the academic arena, Dr. Bor has worked with hundreds of young physicians, fostering an environment of learning, sharing, and innovation. These efforts have earned him the HMS Dean’s Award for Community Service, the A. Clifford Barger Award for Excellence in Mentoring, and membership in the HMS Academy, whose focus is excellence and innovation in medical education. In his current role, Dr. Bor ingrains academics as fundamental to CHA. He envisions CHA as a national model for integrated public health and health care and for medical education innovation.

Dr. Davis is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of ACP Decisions. She has had a long-standing interest in applying her legal skills for vulnerable populations within the healthcare system to promote more patient-centered care. Prior to her medical career, Dr. Davis was a practicing attorney who advocated on behalf of Medicaid recipients and the uninsured as well as represented individuals and corporations in corporate criminal matters. She received her undergraduate degree from Harvard, a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and a medical degree from Harvard.

Michael Fine is a writer, a community organizer, a family physician, and a public health provocateur. He is currently Chief Health Strategist to Mayor James Diossa and the City of Central Falls, Rhode Island, which together with Blackstone Valley Community Health Care, Inc. opened the first Neighborhood Health Station in the US, in February of 2019. He served in the Cabinet of Governor Lincoln Chafee as Director of the Rhode Island Department of Health (HEALTH) from February of  2011 until March of 2015, overseeing a broad  range of public health programs and services. Dr. Fine’s career as both a family physician and manager in the field of healthcare has been devoted to healthcare reform and the care of underserved populations. Before his confirmation as Director of Health, Dr. Fine served as the Medical Program Director at the Rhode Island Department of Corrections. He was a founder and Managing Director of HealthAccessRI, the nation’s first statewide organization making direct (prepaid, reduced fee-for-service) primary care available to people without employer-provided health insurance. Dr. Fine practiced for 16 years in urban Pawtucket, Rhode Island and rural Scituate, Rhode Island, after serving as a National Health Service Corps Scholar in Hancock County Tennessee, the then fifth poorest county in the US.  He was a VISTA Volunteer, as a community organizer on 167^th Street and 3^rd Avenue, in the South Bronx, before medical school at Case Western Reserve University and residency at Brown. He is the former Physician Operating Officer of Hillside Avenue Family and Community Medicine, the largest family practice in Rhode Island, and the former Physician-in-Chief of the Rhode Island and Miriam Hospitals’ Departments of Family and Community Medicine. He currently serves on the Boards of Crossroads Rhode Island, the state’s largest service organization for the homeless, the Lown Institute, the, RI New Leaders Council and RICARES. Dr. Fine is a past President of the Rhode Island Academy of Family Physicians and was an Open Society Institute/George Soros Fellow in Medicine as a Profession from 2000 to 2002. He is the author for four books, including Health Care Revolt: How to Organize, Build a Health Care System, and Resuscitate Democracy – All At The Same Time (PM Press, 2018) and Abundance, a novel (PM Press 2019).

A founding principal and chairman of TFC Financial Management, James L. Joslin has more than 45 years of experience in private wealth management. His background includes investment analysis, portfolio management, and trust banking, as well as the domestic and international marketing of these services to individuals and institutions. Prior to starting TFC, Joslin was the principal of J.L. Joslin Associates, which provided consulting services to major financial companies serving affluent investors. Joslin also held senior portfolio management and business development positions at Jennison Associates, Eaton Vance Corporation, Thorndike, Doran, Paine and Lewis, and Wellington Management Company – all major firms in the individual and tax-qualified money management business. Currently, he is a Trustee of the Maine Maritime Museum, a Board member of the International Museum of World War II, as well as an Advisory Board Member of the MGH Center for Law, Brain, and Behavior, and Treasurer of the Pioneer Institute.

Chris Kryder, MD is a leader in healthcare data analytics and information technology. He is the founder of newly-formed New Era Medical Organizations (NEMO), and he is executive chair of Chicago-based Higi. From 2013 through 2020, Dr. Kryder was an executive partner in Boston-based Flare Capital Partners. Previously, Dr. Kryder served as executive chair of Valence Health (sold to Evolent), founder and CEO of the analytics vendor D2Hawkeye (sold to Verisk) and a co-founder of Generation Health (sold to CVS). Dr. Kryder was a primary care internist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for nearly two decades, and directed clinical operations for MIT’s corporate HMO. He received his BA (History) from the University of Buffalo, his MD from Georgetown, and his MBA from MIT. He was active on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, Division of Health, Science, and Technology for more than 25 years.

After an extensive national search, Selwyn Rogers, Jr., MD, MPH, FACS, was named the Section Chief of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery at the University of Chicago Medicine in January, 2017. In 2021, Dr. Rogers received the inaugural Dr. James E. Bowman, Jr. Professorship in the Biological Sciences.  Dr. Rogers is an acclaimed critical care surgeon and public health expert who has served in leadership capacities at health centers across the country, including most recently as vice president and chief medical officer for the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Dr. Rogers has also served as the chairman of surgery at Temple University School of Medicine and as the division chief of Trauma, Burn and Surgical Critical Care at Harvard Medical School. While at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), he helped launch the Center for Surgery and Public Health to understand the nature, quality, and utilization of surgical care nationally and internationally. Dr. Rogers is a prolific researcher, and his work seeks to improve quality and access to care for all patients. Among other topics, his published research has looked at the impact of race and ethnicity on surgical outcomes. He is committed to improving the understanding of disparities in surgical care to close the quality chasm for underserved populations and provide the most patient-centered care possible. Beyond trauma and surgical critical care, Dr. Rogers has been an advocate for treating intentional violence as a public health problem. In partnership with the Center for Community Health and Health Equity at BWH, he developed a violence intervention and prevention program that worked to address the social factors that put patients at increased risk for trauma and mortality such as poverty, hopelessness, and lack of opportunity. The program partners with organizations in Boston to educate youth about community violence and connects victims with the resources they need to heal. Dr. Rogers earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and completed both his surgery residency and an NIH research fellowship in surgical oncology at BWH in Boston. He completed a surgical critical care fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and BWH. Additionally, Dr. Rogers has a master’s degree in public health from Vanderbilt University.

Daniel S. Kern is Managing Director & Chief Investment Officer of TFC Financial Management. He is responsible for overseeing TFC’s investment process, research activities and portfolio strategy. Prior to joining TFC, Kern was the President and Chief Investment Officer at Advisor Partners, a boutique asset manager in the San Francisco area. Kern’s previous experience included a Managing Director/Portfolio Manager role at Charles Schwab Investment Management where he managed $3.5 billion of mutual fund assets as head of asset allocation. Prior to Charles Schwab, Kern was a Managing Director/Principal at Montgomery Asset Management where he managed global and international equity portfolios. A CFA charterholder, Kern is a member of the CFA Institute and is also a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ practitioner. He is a Board member and Chair of the Investment Committee for the Cambridge Community Foundation, on the Board of Advisors for the Brandeis International Business School, an Independent Trustee for Green Century Funds, and on the Board of Directors of Wealthramp. He is a contributor to Kiplinger, U.S. News and ThinkAdvisor, a regular guest on TD Ameritrade Network’s Morning Trade Live and Bloomberg’s Baystate Business, and a frequent speaker at regional, national, and international investment forums. Dan is a graduate of Brandeis University with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics degree. He also holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of California, Berkeley – Haas School of Business.