Vivek Garg

Physician-executive dedicated to care rising to the quintuple aim. CenterWell primary care. Ex-@caremorehealth, @oscarhealth, @onemedical. Views my own.

[NCQA @NCQA]

A milestone moment at #NCQASummit was when @PeggyNCQA passed the quality torch to @vgargMD! Past, present, and future came together in a powerful conversation on leadership and impact!

Read Peggy's reflections on the last 35 years here: https://t.co/0QGKUe4b1q

[Vivek Garg @vgargMD]

It was a flashbulb moment to join the #NCQASummit as incoming President and riff with @PeggyNCQA on #healthcarequality.

As Peggy notes, we need to enlargen the conversation about quality and the @NCQA will work to do so.

Quality should be the North Star of our healthcare system.

https://t.co/7tcUATOSlI

[NCQA @NCQA]

Join us for a powerful and historic moment at the #NCQASummit as #NCQA’s founding president, @PeggyNCQA, sits down for a candid fireside chat with @VGargMD, NCQA’s incoming leader. This keynote gives a front-row seat to the next chapter. Register today: https://t.co/7YDt3E6t3N

[Vivek Garg @vgargMD]

@NCQA I’m honored to join the NCQA in January and grateful for this chance to build on @PeggyNCQA’s extraordinary legacy.

Looking forward to working with patients, clinicians, and partners across healthcare to reimagine #quality for the future!

[Jacob Effron @jacobeffron]

🎙️New Vital Signs with @Humana CMO @vgargMD and @nikillinit on:

- Lessons from primary care innovators
- Future of value-based care
- How Humana thinks about partnerships

Spotify: https://t.co/bWzFIgav28
Apple: https://t.co/IBZy7KALRC

[Vivek Garg @vgargMD]

@adamcifu Great call out.

In the other direction, drink choices are also a leading indicator of positive lifestyle changes.

More frequent choice, many alternatives available, and less depend on others (vs meals).

[Vivek Garg @vgargMD]

@DrDeepMD @alikhan28 😂

[Sandeep Palakodeti, MD MPH @DrDeepMD]

Love this advice.

Because let’s face it, the world is incredibly uncertain and complex right now. Whether personally or professionally, you must find a blueprint to navigate these times.

A few ways I think of a practical overlay to these foundational principles:

🔹Ground yourself, then others: how?
- For me, it’s focusing on the core four (sleep, diet, exercise, relationships). Do something every day that puts your mind at rest and gives you an opportunity to reflect. Meditation, a walk in nature, journaling, literal grounding. Find your balance then help others do the same.

🔹Expand your notion of team:
- Find your tribe. Whether your colleagues, your friends and family, your hobby group, whoever, having community and people on your team is proven to improve longevity. Be creative in who you consult and how, you will find amazing advice and inputs all around you if you just ask.

🔹Assess the worst case scenarios:
- Then work backwards. Is it really that bad? What other options do I have? How can I mitigate and do the “pre-mortem” to anticipate and avoid roadblocks? Have the hard conversations with yourself and then create an action plan to course out a different path. Write it down.

🔹Reopen perspectives that become fixed:
- We must challenge ourselves to be honest with our viewpoints and steadfast beliefs in the face of an ever changing world and new evidence. The biggest lies we tell are to ourselves. Why do we feel so dogmatic about certain things? Push yourself to be “on the debate team” and argue FOR a position you’d usually be against, and vice versa. You’ll find it builds empathy and a more clear POV.

🔹Manage mindsets:
- It ALL starts here. Doesn’t matter what you want if your subconscious isn’t there. Are you really at the stage of change for action? Or still pre-contemplative? Everything that has ever happened in this world has happened because someone has decided and made a mindset shift. Manage your mindset and your entire experience of life changes.

🔹KISS:
- We make everything too hard. There’s nothing fancy about how to live a great life.

Here’s a simple road map:
- Eat mostly real food, in moderation
- Move your body daily, aim to walk as much as possible and lift heavy things
- Prioritize sleep, turn off the screens
- Find purpose and community

Simple.

Now go crush this day!!

[Vivek Garg @vgargMD]

Uncertainty & complexity often collide during rapid periods of change.

Some advice:

- ground yourself, then others
- expand your notion of team
- assess the worst case scenarios
- reopen perspectives that become fixed (ST vs LT)
- manage mindsets
- keep it simple, silly (KISS)

[Vivek Garg @vgargMD]

@gbosslet This but with good mattresses and a trainer

[Vivek Garg @vgargMD]

@JoshHargraves2 Yes completely agree.

[Vivek Garg @vgargMD]

18 hours into a senior loved one’s ER visit & hospital admit:

Blur of diff opinions by 2 ER docs, 2 hospitalists, 3 psychiatrists, 1 nephrologist, 5+ nurses.

Crucial moment: hallway huddle w nephrologist, psych, family —> new trajectory of care.

Coordination & context matter.

[Vivek Garg @vgargMD]

@DrVDV Thanks Jon 🙏

She is getting better but still a daily fight to keep the context consistent for the daily changing teams…

[Vivek Garg @vgargMD]

Recently, my father, an immigrant from India and retired community physician, dropped some wisdom on me.

He said “As parents, your children’s karma comes from yours, until they grow up and create their own. Trust who they are going to become’.

I am thinking about that a lot.

[Vivek Garg @vgargMD]

Yes or no?

Navigating the emotional health of an organization is not talked about enough in the executive team.

Leadership is inherently conflicted with driving performance vs “slow down” concerns.

Strategic HR, comms, & change support are undervalued and anemic.

[Vivek Garg @vgargMD]

@VasuNadella Congratulations @VasuNadella and team!

[Vivek Garg @vgargMD]

@sacjai Always a pioneer @sacjai

Particularly on giving people like me real opportunities to do meaningful work…

[Vivek Garg @vgargMD]

Some advice I wish someone had told me:

- balance diversity & depth over yrs not mo’s
- carry your work through to a place you will be satisfied w yrs later
- figure out how to become someone others want to work with
- find your points of conviction & do stuff (!) about them

[Vivek Garg @vgargMD]

@DrDeepMD Would recommend listening to @rshawnm as a counter-example.

Few people can channel the dignity and importance of family medicine & primary care so well.

A lifelong & passionate advocate for physicians and other clinicians serving these needs.