The Heart of Healthcare | A Digital Health Podcast

🏆 Meet the Shkreli Award "Winners" | Lown Institute President Dr. Vikas Saini

Jan 27, 2025

Dr. Vikas Saini, President of the Lown Institute and a clinical cardiologist, dives into the shocking world of healthcare profiteering. He discusses the annual Shkreli Awards, spotlighting cases like a Texas school selling deceased body parts and an oncologist's harmful practices. The conversation also touches on the controversial rise of unnecessary infant procedures and the role of private equity in bankrupting community hospitals. Through these alarming examples, Dr. Saini reveals critical insights about the ethical dilemmas and future of the American healthcare system.

34:25

Episode guests

Vikas Saini

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Quick takeaways

The Shkreli Awards expose critical ethical violations in healthcare, highlighting profit-driven practices that harm patients and undermine trust.

Dr. Saini advocates for a humanistic healthcare approach that prioritizes patient needs and promotes social responsibility over profit motives.

Deep dives

The Lown Institute's Advocacy for Humanistic Care

The Lown Institute, led by Dr. Vikas Sani, emphasizes a healthcare model focused on humanistic, relationship-based care rather than technology-driven solutions. Dr. Sani reflects on his mentoring experience with Bernard Lown, highlighting the importance of prioritizing patient needs while minimizing unnecessary medical interventions. The mission of the Institute is to transform healthcare in America to be more just and caring, aiming to celebrate hospitals that excel in both quality outcomes and social responsibility. This vision is critical in countering the ongoing dysfunctions within the current healthcare system.

Intro

3min

Balancing Accountability and Optimism in Healthcare

3min

The Macabre Market of Human Remains

2min

Healthcare Ethics and Incentives

12min

Examining Profit Motives in Cancer Drug Dosing Strategies

3min

The Cost of Care: Profit Over Patients

11min

From selling deceased patients' body parts to denying cancer treatment over upfront payments, the Lown Institute's annual Shkreli Awards spotlight the most egregious examples of profiteering and dysfunction in American healthcare. Dr. Vikas Saini, President of the Lown Institute, walks us through 2024's (dis)honorees and what they reveal about the state of our healthcare system.

We cover:

🏆 The origin and impact of the Shkreli Awards

🏥 How a Texas medical school sold body parts without family consent

💉 The booming business of unnecessary infant tongue-tie procedures

💊 A Montana oncologist's shocking pattern of patient harm

🏦 UnitedHealth's growing control over American healthcare

💰 How private equity firm Steward Health Care bankrupted community hospitals

🔍 What these cases tell us about healthcare's future

Show notes:

➡️ Nominate someone for the $25k Bernard Lown Award for Social Responsibility

About our guest:

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 featuring world-renowned leaders in health care; and guided other Lown Institute projects such as the “Shkreli Awards.” Dr. Saini also serves as 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.

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