The 2017 MedTech Boston 40 Under 40 Healthcare Innovators

33. Ravi B. Parikh, MD, MPP
Resident Physician in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Ravi Parikh, a resident physician in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, entered medicine with the aim of bringing his hospice care expertise to mainstream healthcare. “I expected that hospice would teach me about dying,” reflected Parikh on his first job as a hospice counselor. “But individuals on hospice are more focused on living–maximizing time with loved ones without beeping alarms and painful IVs.”

His experiences showed him that poor end-of-life care often stemmed from physicians’ poor prognostic abilities. Parikh aims to use technology to improve prognoses—not only at the end of life, but throughout the patient journey.

During his academic years, Parikh studied the impact of palliative care in improving health outcomes for seriously ill patients. As he progressed in his career, he morphed his interest to health policy and advocacy. His work has been published in prestigious academic publications, and he regularly writes for The Washington Post and Now@NEJM Blog.

He has also consulted for groups such as C-TAC and AARP to bring innovative technologies in caring for advanced ill patients—say, better population health management for payers or patient-centric consumer technologies.

However, for Parikh, his true joy is in getting away from computers and actually talking to patients. “Some of the favorite moments of my residency have been the 40-minute clinic visits where you can just chat with a primary care patient you’ve gotten to know for the past three years,” he says.

During his free time, Parikh and his wife have recently been hooked on the Food Network—enough to start some cooking experiments on their own!