CHIBE Q&A with Gary Gottlieb, MD, MBA

The Center for Health Incentives & Behavioral Economics (CHIBE) recently welcomed Gary Gottlieb, MD, MBA, as a member of our external advisory board. Dr. Gottlieb is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a member of the National Academy of Medicine. From 2015-2019, he served as CEO of Partners In Health, a global NGO providing a preferential option for the poor in health care in severely resource constrained settings. He assumed this role after serving on the PIH Board of Directors for a decade. From 2010 until February of 2015, Dr. Gottlieb was the CEO of Partners HealthCare (now MassGeneral Brigham), the parent of the Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospitals, the largest health care delivery organization in New England and among the largest biomedical research and training enterprises in the US. From 2002-2009, he was President of Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Read our Q&A to learn more about Dr. Gottlieb.

What made you interested in joining CHIBE’s external advisory board?

I am inspired by CHIBE’s mission and the body of its brilliant work. I believe that these efforts are essential to the transformation of the US health care enterprise from an illness care system to a health care system. CHIBE is foundational to the toolset that is necessary to translate the wonders of health services research and implementation science to the improvement of population health and health care delivery. I can’t imagine learning from a more remarkable group of investigators, leaders, and managers.

What are you working on these days?

As a Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, I continue to have the privilege of mentoring dozens of brilliant young people, colleagues, and leaders who are committed to improving the human condition and our field broadly. I also have the privilege of advising people and organizations that are working to advance science and to create novel solutions to challenges in the current health care ecosystem. I serve on several nonprofit boards, and as executive chair and/or a board member on the boards of several companies in health services and technology. I also work with close and trusted colleagues to advise organizations working on global health care projects.

What’s the best career advice you’ve received?

Make certain that any place that you work and the people you work with share your values and that you can fall in love with the organization’s mission.