Rishi Manchanda, MD, MPH is CEO at HealthBegins, a national firm that helps Medicaid-serving executives and teams meet growing state and federal requirements for health equity and social needs, exceed performance goals, and achieve long-term impact for people harmed by societal practices. He has advanced this mission throughout his career as a primary care physician, executive, and public health champion.

Manchanda served as founding director of social medicine for community health centers in south central Los Angeles, as the first lead physician for veterans experiencing homelessness at Greater Los Angeles Veterans Affairs health services, and as inaugural chief medical officer for a self-insured employer with a large rural agricultural workforce.

In his book The Upstream Doctors and in a TED Talk, he introduced a new model of health care professionals known as “Upstreamists.” They focus on improving outcomes by addressing social and structural drivers of health equity, including patients’ social needs, community-level social determinants of health, and structural determinants of health equity such as structural racism.

Articles by Rishi