Former VA Secretary Joins ArmadaHealth Clinical Advisory Board

The ninth secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), David Shulkin, M.D., has joined the ArmadaHealth Clinical Advisory Board as a special advisor.

Shulkin was appointed by President Barack Obama as the under secretary of the VA from July 2015 to January 2017. From February 2017 to March 2018, Shulkin served as the ninth secretary under President Donald Trump, until being replaced by Robert Wilkie. Shulkin feared a politicized culture in Washington could lead to the privatization of VA's health system, and the ousting was expected.

Under Shulkin, the VA made conscious efforts to be more tech-savvy and even partnered with Google-owned machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) company DeepMind to detect health deterioration among VA patients. He also focused on increasing the transparency of the VA by posting wait times at all of its facilities and posting its opioid prescribing rates publically.

Shulkin currently serves as the president of Shulkin Solutions, a company that focuses on helping healthcare organizations and companies foster innovation to improve patient well-being.

Throughout his illustrious career in healthcare, Shulkin has been the chief medical officer at the University of Pennsylvania Health System, Medical College of Pennsylvania and Temple University Hospital in Pennsylvania. Shulkin was also the founder and CEO of DoctorQuality and vice dean, chair of medicine and chief quality officer at Drexel University School of Medicine in Pennsylvania.

He served as president and CEO of Beth Israel Medical Center in New York and president of Morristown Medical Center in New Jersey, prior to being appointed at the VA.

ArmadaHealth is a data science and services company focused on healthcare quality and transparency. The company connects people to doctors through its AI-enabled consumer-facing solutions.

“I’m pleased to be working with ArmadaHealth and continuing my professional goals of helping empower consumers with tools to obtain high quality healthcare,” said Shulkin.

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