Entrepreneurial Innovations in Healthcare Services
Bernard Salick, M.D. ’60, is widely recognized as a visionary, pioneer, and leading expert in the field of disease-state management. The founder and former Chairman and CEO of Salick Health Care, Inc., he developed industry-changing concepts and solutions that fundamentally transformed how patients with chronic and catastrophic illnesses are diagnosed and treated. While leading Salick Health Care, Inc., he created a managed care subsidiary, the first to offer fixed-price insurance products for the treatment of catastrophic diseases such as cancer and end-stage renal disease. He established a series of practice guidelines and outcome measurements for cancer treatment which were instituted nationwide at the eleven Comprehensive Cancer Centers, and the eight Comprehensive Breast Centers operated by Salick Health Care, Inc. These diagnostic and treatment centers were open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, providing quick, user-friendly, and high quality out-patient care in a cost-effective manner.
In 1997, Salick Health Care, Inc. was sold to Zeneca PLC (Astra-Zeneca). Dr. Salick then created Bentley Health Care, providing diagnostic and therapeutic services to patients with chronic and catastrophic illness including cancer, end-stage renal disease, and AIDS. Bentley Health Care, Inc. and all of Dr. Salick’s health care companies, are dedicated to advancing the field of disease-state management through innovative and unique solutions to patients, physicians, and payors seeking quality care and cost-effective, disease-state programs.
Based on his disease-specific paradigm that he has previously pioneered, he developed the concept of Comprehensive Cardiovascular Centers. Salick Cardiovascular Centers, Inc. in affiliation with Private Equity Partners, proposed a broad range of innovative services for the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease (including cerebrovascular, coronary artery, coronary heart and peripheral vascular disease) and cardiovascular end-stage renal disease on an out-patient basis, with in-patient affiliations. These centers will offer state-of-the-art procedures and techniques for the treatment and diagnosis of cardiovascular disease, including surgery, angioplasty, angiography, electrophysiologic procedures, sophisticated radiology, and other diagnostic testing and medical services. Leading practitioners, researchers and educators in the cardiovascular field indicated their desire to join Dr. Salick to develop the Centers on a national basis. These essential services will be available to patients, physicians and payors in a multidisciplinary, high quality, user-friendly, cost-efficient environment, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and will be incorporated with the Salick Comprehensive Diabetes Centers, Inc.
In addition, Dr. Salick worked with Members of the Harvard Business School and Harvard Medical School Faculty in developing a plan for a Personalized Medicine Molecular Biology entity headed by Dr. Raju Kucherlapati.
Dr. Salick received his B.S. degree from Queens College, New York in 1960, and his M.D. from the University of Southern California in 1964. He completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellowship in Nephrology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the University of California, Los Angeles. He has served on the board of the Queens College Foundation, and Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica. He is and has been a member of the Visiting Committee and the Leadership Council of the Harvard School of Public Health.
He is a regular visiting lecturer at and has been a member of the Healthcare Initiative Advisory Board and the Centennial Committee of the Harvard Business School. In 2005, Dr. Salick served on both the Harvard Business School panel for the Healthcare Innovation and Opportunities in Southeast Asia and also was a guest speaker for the India and Its Neighbors Conference. He served on the Board of Directors of Nephros, Inc. (AMEX:NEP) from 2005 to 2007 and in addition, he served as a member of the Board of Trustees for the United States Equestrian Team Foundation from 1991 to 2011. In 2004, Dr. Salick established a fellowship at Harvard School of Public Health to provide annual scholarships for selected students pursuing studies related to cancer and/or cardiovascular disease. He also provides funds for fellowships and scholarships at Yeshiva University, Queens College, and Stuyvesant High School.
In 2010, Dr. Salick was offered the position of Chief Executive Officer of Harvard’s Joslin Clinic by its Board of Trustees, an offer that Dr. Salick declined. Dr. Salick is presently working on the development of a nationwide program of Comprehensive Diabetes Centers.
Dr. Salick and his wife Gloria reside in Los Angeles and New York. They have three daughters who have each completed graduate school in New York. Dr. Salick and Mrs. Salick presently have five grandchildren.
Tribute by Shlomo Melmed, M.D.
Honoring Bernard Salick M.D. – Alumnus of the Year
Cedars-Sinai Alumni Association
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
December 2, 2010
It is a pleasure for me to honor Bernard Salick here tonight. Dr. Salick has had a major impactnationally and internationally in the development of new clinical programs for the diagnosis andtreatment of patients in many areas of medicine including Nephrology, Cancer, Organ Transplant, Cardiovascular Disease, and Personalized Medicine. He is a world renowned medical entrepreneurwhose companies have striven to provide compassionate and advanced care to patients withcatastrophic diseases in a user-friendly, high quality outpatient care in a cost effective manner. He early on realized the benefits of a 24-hour a day, outpatient diagnosis and treatment center.His clinics developed standards for care of cancer treatments including a vast database of cancerdrug use and treatment outcomes such as chemotherapy for colon cancer, bone marrow transplantsfor breast cancer, and the use of anti-nausea drugs. He has been intimately involved in developingthese centers with academic medical centers and governments throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, Israel, and Southeast Asia. Proudly, he developed the first Cancer Centerat Cedars-Sinai, dedicated to excellence in patient care, and delivery of 24/7 service. Regarded by fellow professionals as one of the nation's leading and most innovative health careentrepreneurs, Bernie also boasts an impressive career as a physician and leader of many nationalcivic causes. He has served on multiple committees at Harvard University School of Public Health,Business School, and Medical School. He has served on the National Advisory Board for theNational Kidney Foundation (1988-1990), was a member of the Board of Directors for American Women's Economic Development Corporation (1990-1991) and Nephros, Inc. (2005-2007),and was on the Board of Trustees for the Hereditary Disease Foundation (1975-1985). Bernie has been instrumental in providing a unique model of innovative and effective treatmentfor patients with catastrophic diseases. He Is a world renowned health care innovator who has hadtremendous Impact on national and worldwide medical delivery practices. I congratulate him andGlo for this well-deserved honor, as a veteran member of the Cedars-Sinai family. Cedars-Sinaiis proud of you, Bernie, and we wish you good health and energy to continue contributing tosociety with your unique passion and energy.mission, and a member of the Mayors Advisory Committee on Crime.
Shlomo Melmed, MD
Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dean of the Medical Faculty
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center