David Shulkin

Early life, education, and personal life

Shulkin was born at the Fort Sheridan U.S. Army base in Highland Park, Illinois, where his father served as an Army psychiatrist. He received a BA from Hampshire College in 1982, and an MD degree from Medical College of Pennsylvania (which has since merged into Drexel University) in 1986; he then did his internship at Yale School of Medicine, and his residency and fellowship in General Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Presbyterian Medical Center. He was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. He is married to Merle Bari, a dermatologist. His daughter, Jennie, won a gold medal in squash at the 2009 Maccabiah Games. Shulkin is Jewish.

Career

Shulkin specialized in health care management. He has been described as one of the "high priests" of patient centered care. Shulkin served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. While there, Shulkin would walk the wards after midnight after he discovered the night shift was providing a lower quality of care. He also served as president of Morristown Medical Center and as vice president of Atlantic Health System Accountable Care Organization.

He has been Chief Medical Officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University Hospital, and the Medical College of Pennsylvania Hospital.

His other academic positions have included Chairman of Medicine and Vice Dean at Drexel University College of Medicine, and Professor of Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Shulkin has been the editor of Journal of Clinical Outcomes Management and Hospital Physician, and has been on the editorial boards of several journals, including Journal of the American Medical Association. He founded and served as the Chairman and CEO of DoctorQuality, Inc., a consumer-oriented information service.

Shulkin has written several peer-reviewed journal articles and other professional publications. In 1999, Shulkin started a pay for performance company called DoctorQuality, which ultimately failed.

Veterans Affairs

In 2015, Shulkin left the private sector when he was named by President Barack Obama as Under Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Health in the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. When his staff told him it would take ten months to organize a summit on combat veteran suicides, Shulkin told them that the wait would cost 6,000 lives and to get it done in one month, which they then did.

On January 11, 2017, Shulkin was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump as United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Trump, who had first considered five others, nominated Shulkin after a recommendation by Ambassador David M. Friedman.

On February 13, 2017, the United States Senate unanimously confirmed Shulkin as the U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs in a 100–0 vote, making him the only cabinet nominee by President Trump to have unanimous consent. He is the first non-veteran to hold the position. For President Trump's address to a Joint Session of Congress on February 28, 2017, Shulkin served as the designated survivor.

Shulkin continues to see patients in person and remotely over the internet. He oversees the government’s second-largest agency, with over 350,000 employees and 1,700 facilities. One-third of veterans are currently sent to private health care providers, which Shulkin hopes to increase. In April 2017, Shulkin had every VA hospital and clinic begin publicly posting quality data and wait times. He hopes to provide those with a less than honorable military discharge with free mental health care. Shulkin supports legislation to make it easier for the VA to hire and fire staff.

Awards and honors

Published works