Vikas Saini, MD is President of the Lown Institute. After majoring in philosophy at Princeton, with an interest in economics, politics, and history, he completed his MD with Distinction from Dalhousie University in Halifax (1980), residency at Baltimore City Hospitals and Johns Hopkins, and a Lown Cardiology Fellowship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard.
Dr. Saini joined the Lown Group in 1987 before leaving to co-found Aspect Medical Systems, the pioneer in consciousness monitoring technologies in the operating room and critical care setting. There he helped initiate development of the BIS Monitor, served on the Board of Directors and was the first Vice-President for Research. He organized the company’s initial clinical research trials and helped secure early rounds of angel and venture capital investments before returning to the practice of cardiology. Aspect Medical made its initial public offering in 2000 and was acquired by Covidien in 2009.
He was a founding partner of The Cardiovascular Specialists, which became the dominant cardiovascular practice on Cape Cod. He was also the founding Chairman of Cape Physicians, LLC, a primary care physician network taking insurance risk contracts. In that role he organized utilization review and care management programs designed to deliver appropriate care in the home or outpatient settings. He continued to lead the organization after its merger with Primary Care, LLC (now New England Quality Care Alliance), where he served as Vice-President. The organization has remained financially successful since its founding.
Dr. Saini returned to the Lown Institute and Lown Cardiovascular Group in 2007. Dr. Saini is Board-certified in Cardiovascular Disease, Internal Medicine, and Nuclear Cardiology and has been on the faculty of the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, where he initiated the first course on global cardiovascular disease focused on translation, policy, and prevention.
In April 2012, Dr. Saini convened the Avoiding Avoidable Care Conference with Shannon Brownlee of the New America Foundation, the first major academic conference focused on the problem of unnecessary care. Under the auspices of the Lown Institute, they have helped lead the formation of the Right Care Alliance, a partnership of clinicians, patients, and the general public, all seeking a medical system that puts patients first while being affordable, effective, rational, personal, and just.
He has spoken and presented research about avoiding unnecessary care at professional meetings around the world. Dr. Saini has been a columnist for Prevention Magazine India. He has been quoted in numerous print media and has been a guest commentator on radio and television. His intellectual interests include nutritional and preventive cardiology, technology applications for medicine, the biology of aging, and global health.