Christopher Chen, MD

In corporate America in publicly traded companies, people are always watching their backs. Things typically move very slowly, with lots of bureaucracy, misalignment, missing purpose, and lack of trust. It’s very rare when these elements aren’t present. But we have none of those in our family, and we don’t allow them to infiltrate ChenMed.

The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) includes provisions to cap out-of-pocket spending for Medicare patients and allow Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices. Laudable as that is, America continues to address symptoms rather than causes. What we really need is foundational change, and that starts with committing to what I call transformative primary care.

A CT scan revealed Dr. James Chen, a Miami physician, had a cancerous, inoperable, tumor behind his nose. The prognosis was bleak. Dr. Chen had eight weeks to live.

Dr. Chen and his sons, Chris and Gordon, looked for a miracle. Chris was completing a cardiology fellowship. Gordon was finishing medical school. They knew what they were up against. Even still, they were shocked when a local oncologist told them, “The first available appointment is in six weeks.”

James and his sons… Show more

A CT scan revealed Dr. James Chen, a Miami physician, had a cancerous, inoperable, tumor behind his nose. The prognosis was bleak. Dr. Chen had eight weeks to live.

Dr. Chen and his sons, Chris and Gordon, looked for a miracle. Chris was completing a cardiology fellowship. Gordon was finishing medical school. They knew what they were up against. Even still, they were shocked when a local oncologist told them, “The first available appointment is in six weeks.”

James and his sons were suddenly patients, forced to look at the healthcare system from the other end of the stethoscope. They didn’t like what they saw—expensive, uncoordinated, and ineffective care. At one point James asked his sons, “If a family of doctors with connections can’t navigate this system, what chance do my patients have?”

The Chens found their calling. Together with James’ wife Mary, Chris’s wife Stephanie (an attorney), and Gordon’s wife Jessica (another doctor) they created ChenMed, a physician-led company that serves the underserved­­. ChenMed puts their patients from forgotten communities first and focuses on accountable, compassionate care that improves health.

In The Calling, Chris and Gordon share how the family succeeded beyond their wildest expectations through a combination of determination, data, family, and faith. They turned what could have been a tragedy into an opportunity that will revolutionize healthcare delivery for years to come. The Calling will give you hope. Show less

In this STAT News article, I share what it was like to be stricken suddenly and then hospitalized with the dangerous COVID-19 virus. As a critically ill patient, the experience gave me a new perspective being on the receiving end of treatment rather than the provider. It also allowed me to reflect on my roles as a CEO, husband, father, brother, and son.

Embracing two-sided risk while adopting workflow redesign and reviewing benchmarks is leading to improved clinical and financial outcomes.

While little seems certain about the current healthcare reform debate in Congress, the transition to value-based care is well underway. We are beginning to see that when providers are paid to deliver better care at lower costs, they can have a real impact on both.

Patients with five or more chronic conditions drive most Medicare costs. Our organization, ChenMed, developed a scalable primary care–led delivery model that focuses on this population while getting reimbursed through full-risk capitation by Medicare Advantage plans. ChenMed is a primary care–led group practice based in Florida that serves low-to-moderate-income elderly patients, largely through the Medicare Advantage program. Our model includes a number of innovations: a one-stop-shop approach… Show more

Patients with five or more chronic conditions drive most Medicare costs. Our organization, ChenMed, developed a scalable primary care–led delivery model that focuses on this population while getting reimbursed through full-risk capitation by Medicare Advantage plans. ChenMed is a primary care–led group practice based in Florida that serves low-to-moderate-income elderly patients, largely through the Medicare Advantage program. Our model includes a number of innovations: a one-stop-shop approach for delivering multispecialty services in the community, smaller physician panel sizes of 350–450 patients that allow for intensive health coaching and preventive care, on-site physician pharmacy dispensing, a collaborative physician culture with peer review, and customized information technology. These innovations have improved patient medication adherence, increased the time doctors and patients spend together, and led to high rates of patient satisfaction. Additionally, our Medicare patients have substantially lower rates of hospital use than their peers in the Miami Medicare market. Creating chronic disease centers focused on seniors with multiple chronic conditions is a promising delivery system innovation with major potential to improve the cost and quality of care. Show less

Previously, we have shown that in the setting of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), epicardial flow in the nonculprit artery is slowed by approximately 45% compared with normal flow (corrected Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction [TIMI] frame counts of 30.9 frames vs normal value of 21.0 frames, p <0.0001). 1 We hypothesized that microvascular perfusion as assessed using the TIMI myocardial perfusion grade (TMPG) and digital subtraction angiography (DSA) would likewise be impaired in the… Show more

Previously, we have shown that in the setting of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), epicardial flow in the nonculprit artery is slowed by approximately 45% compared with normal flow (corrected Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction [TIMI] frame counts of 30.9 frames vs normal value of 21.0 frames, p <0.0001). 1 We hypothesized that microvascular perfusion as assessed using the TIMI myocardial perfusion grade (TMPG) and digital subtraction angiography (DSA) would likewise be impaired in the uninvolved artery, as well as globally. Show less

Previous studies have consistently demonstrated higher rates of in-hospital and 30-day adverse outcomes and mortality among women with ST elevation acute myocardial infarction (AMI) treated with thrombolytic therapy. However, the pathophysiologic mechanism underlying these differences in clinical outcomes has not been fully explored. Older age as well as differences in other baseline characteristics have been demonstrated to explain some of the differences. Even after adjusting for differences… Show more

Previous studies have consistently demonstrated higher rates of in-hospital and 30-day adverse outcomes and mortality among women with ST elevation acute myocardial infarction (AMI) treated with thrombolytic therapy. However, the pathophysiologic mechanism underlying these differences in clinical outcomes has not been fully explored. Older age as well as differences in other baseline characteristics have been demonstrated to explain some of the differences. Even after adjusting for differences in baseline characteristics, however, gender still remains independently associated with mortality. Given the inability of differences in baseline characteristics to fully account for the disparities in clinical outcomes, we hypothesized that there may be underlying differences in the way men and women respond to thrombolytic administration. To evaluate this hypothesis, we compared angiographic and electrocardiographic measures of reperfusion success in men and women. Show less