Prabhjot Singh (physician)

Prabhjot Singh (born August 20, 1982) is Director of the Arnhold Institute^[1] and Chair of the Department of Health System Design & Global Health,^[2] at the Mount Sinai Health System and Icahn School of Medicine, as well as Special Advisor for Strategy and Design at the Peterson Center for Healthcare.^[3] He was formerly an assistant professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University^[4] and Director of Systems Design at the Earth Institute, where he led global efforts to build and design scalable community Health Worker systems.^[5][6][7] He is the author of Dying and Living in the Neighborhood: A Street-Level View of America's Healthcare Promise (Johns Hopkins University Press), which has been enthusiastically reviewed by leaders in healthcare, economics, policy and readers for its narrative style and pragmatic approach.^[8]

His work focuses on scalable management systems, financial instruments and technologies that enable networks of community members, neighborhoods and health design systems that improve health, equity and opportunity. Dr. Singh is a passionate social activist, who has written about issues related to hate crimes,^[9] building more resilient communities,^[10] and equal opportunity to work.^[11] He was attacked in a 2013 hate crime that received extensive local,^[12][13] national^[14][15][16] and international ^[17][18] press, both for the attack itself as well as his response.^[19]

Early life and education

Prabhjot Singh emigrated from Nairobi, Kenya with his family, and has lived in Okemos, Michigan, Chalfont, Pennsylvania as well as in Rochester and New York City, New York. Singh completed a BA & BS in Biology at University of Rochester, where he graduated magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa and earned a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship.

He went on to pursue a combined MD/PhD at Weill Cornell Medical College Rockefeller University, with a Post-Doctoral fellowship in Sustainable Development at Columbia University, supported by a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship, NIH Medical Scientist Training Program Fellowship. He completed his clinical training in Internal Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, and the James J. Peters VA Medical Center in the Bronx. As he was completing his clinical training, he was recognized as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Young Leader^[20] for his work on adapting global insights into health system design to domestic contexts.^[21] He gave a TEDx talk on the topic in 2010,^[22] and at Mayo Transform in 2014.^[23]

Career

Previously, Dr. Singh was an assistant professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and Director of Systems Design at The Earth Institute.^[24] In 2013, he co-founded the One Million Community Health Worker Campaign^[25] with Jeffrey Sachs, which is an initiative of the African Union and UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

In 2015, he was named inaugural Director of the Arnhold institute for Global Health at Mount Sinai, as well as Vice Chairman of medicine for Population. The Arnhold Institute was supported with a gift of $27.5 million, and in 2016, his Arnhold Institute team, in partnership with the UN Special Envoy for Health In Agenda 2030 and partners, launched Atlas,^[26] which leverages satellite technologies to create a new generation of spatial information systems that push intelligence to frontline health care workers in information poor regions. The Arnhold Institute develops scalable technology products, adaptable care systems, and policy design for low-resource settings.

Domestically, in his role as Vice Chairman of Medicine for Population Health,^[27] Dr. Singh has built a system-wide practice transformation team that focuses on developing scalable products that enable practitioners to improve primary care performance and high need patient care. Singh is the founding technical lead of City Health Works,^[28] a Harlem-based social enterprise that is building a financially sustainable and scalable platform for health coaches to improve the outcomes and decrease the costs of care for high need patients. Dr. Singh has a particular interest in developing the capacity for intermediaries to form bridges between healthcare and social care, which has also left him to play an advisory role in the development of the 100 Million Healthier Lives Campaign.^[29]

In 2016, the Mount Sinai Health System Dean, CEO and Board of Trustees approved the creation of the Department of Health System Design and Global Health, which Dr. Singh chairs.

his work has been featured in The Lancet,^[7] The New England Journal of Medicine,^[6] Brookings Institution Economic Studies,^[30] and Health Affairs,^[21] as well as by media outlets such as NPR ^[31] and the New York Times.^[32] He is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and fellow of the Truman National Security Project, where he focuses on how to build strong and resilient communities.^[33]

Social advocacy

Dr. Singh is a passionate social advocate, who has written about issues related to hate crimes,^[9] building more resilient communities,^[10] and equal opportunity to work.^[11] He was attacked in a 2013 hate crime that received extensive local,^[12][13] national^[14][15][16] and international ^[17][18] press, both for the attack itself as well as his response.^[19] Prabhjot continues to work towards the Sikh ideal of "sarbatt da balla" (for all of humanity), and has been outspoken in supports of Muslim, Jewish, Latino and African American communities that have faced increased hostility in the lead up to the 2016 Presidential elections. The LA Times,^[34] Christian Science Monitor,^[35] The Guardian^[36] and Al Jazeera^[37] have covered his commentary and perspectives.

In 2014, Columbia University Magazine wrote a feature story^[38] about Prabhjot Singh and Manmeet Kaur's relationship, work in healthcare, and social activism.

Book

Dr. Singh's first book is entitled Dying and Living in the Neighborhood: A Street-Level View of America's Healthcare Promise (Johns Hopkins University Press), which focuses on how his view of American healthcare as a medical resident was influenced by his work on more sophisticated community health systems abroad.^[8]

References