Richard Merkin
Heritage Provider Network

| Attendee Directory Profile

Richard Merkin has more than 30 years of experience in the health care field. He has specific expertise in the development and administration of integrated physician systems. As the founder of Heritage Provider Network established in 1996, Dr. Merkin develops clinically focused networks to bring efficient and quality driven systems to the communities in which it operates by working with physicians and physician organizations, hospitals and integrated delivery systems, health plans, public and community-based health care entities, and other health care professionals.

Dr. Merkin is a visionary and a sought-after healthcare expert who encourages innovation and challenge. Responding to our country’s 2 trillion dollar health care crises, Dr. Merkin created, developed and sponsored the 3 million dollar Heritage Health Prize for predictive modeling to save more than 30 billion in avoidable hospitalizations. It is the largest predictive modeling prize in the world, larger than the Nobel Prize for Medicine and the Gates Prize for Health. Dr. Merkin is genuinely excited to bring new minds to the healthcare table with the prize and believes data miners hold great potential for not only bringing a winning algorithm, but also to grab the attention of data miners globally and raise awareness about competitive innovation. As a Board member and core contributor to the X Prize Foundation, Dr. Merkin is well aware of the need for the private sector to step up to the plate and assist in a globally transformative way, specifically solving one of our country’s biggest problems – keeping patients healthier and out of the hospital. Dr. Merkin was named Healthcare CEO of the Year for 2011 by the Los Angeles Business Journal. Dr. Merkin established the Richard Merkin Foundation for stem cell research at the Broad Institute at Harvard and established the Richard Merkin Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Brain Sciences Institute and The Richard Merkin Foundation for Neural Regeneration at UCLA

Outside of healthcare he is a Trustee of Caltech, Trustee of the Keck School of Medicine, Trustee of the Nano System Institute, founder and board member of Fastercures. He has been on the board of advisors for the Asia Society Southern California. A strong advocate for education, Dr. Merkin is on the boards for the Sierra Nevada College, The Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools, The United Friends of Children and EdVoice, a team dedicated to education reform. The Richard Merkin Middle School opened its doors September 2006 in the city of Los Angeles, committed to bringing first-rate education to an under-served area.

Dr. Merkin earned his M.D. at the University of Miami, School of Medicine.