VITAS Regional Medical Director Dr. Alen Voskanian Selected for Aspen Institute’s Health Innovators Fellowship

08/11/2017

Santa Monica, CA – Dr. Voskanian is one of 21 national healthcare leaders chosen for a 20-month fellowship to develop new approaches to improve the health and well-being of all Americans. Alen Voskanian, MD, MBA, regional medical director at VITAS Healthcare, the nation’s leading provider of end-of-life care, was carefully chosen by the Aspen Institute Global Leadership Network to join the third class of the Health Innovators Fellowship.

The Health Innovators Fellowship is designed to strengthen the leadership of innovators across the United States health care ecosystem, and to connect, inspire, and challenge fellows to find new approaches that will improve the health and well-being of all Americans.

“This is a unique opportunity to collaborate with an extraordinary, diverse group of peers who have already made significant strides in the health care industry,” said Dr. Voskanian. “I’m honored to have been selected, and look forward to working with each of the fellows to make an even greater positive impact on the U.S. health care system.”

Dr. Voskanian is one of just 21 highly successful entrepreneurs and innovators selected to participate. The fellows hail from across the country and work in a wide variety of health care sectors including medicine, long-term care, pharmaceuticals, public health, biotechnology, health insurance, mental health, government, venture capital and more. The first seminar will be in Aspen this November.

“I am thrilled to recognize an extraordinary group of leaders who reflect the best of passion and commitment in the US health care system,” said Rima Cohen, managing director of the Health Innovators Fellowship. “The Fellows bring a diverse set of life experiences and skills to their work; we’re delighted to be able to give them a platform from which they can address significant system challenges at this critical time in health care.”

Fellows participate in four seminars that last 5 to 7 days each, directed by experienced Aspen Institute-certified instructors. In addition, each fellow must design and launch a leadership venture of his or her own choosing. This initiative mobilizes fellows’ energies, skills and resources to address pressing U.S. health care challenges.

Dr. Voskanian is board-certified in hospice and palliative medicine, family medicine, and a HIV specialist certified by the American Academy of HIV Medicine. He serves as an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California Los Angeles and is a fellow of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM). He was also the recipient of the prestigious Hastings Center Cunniff Dixon Physician Award in 2013 for excellence in end-of-life care.

Modeled after the successful Henry Crown Fellowship and the Liberty Fellowship, the Health Innovators Fellowship launched in 2015 to build upon the Aspen Institute’s commitment to values-based, action-oriented leadership.