Jack Lewin | National Coalition on Health Care

Former CEO, American College of Cardiology

Dr. Lewin has been chief executive officer of the ACC since November 2006. The 39,000-member College represents American cardiologists, and a growing number of international members. Based in Washington, D.C., ACC has a distinguished reputation among professional societies for leadership in the monitoring of quality care and outcomes, and for making such results transparent. Publisher of the esteemed Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), ACC is also the world leader in cardiovascular clinical education and clinical guidelines development, operating the NCDR quality of care data registries in over 2,400 hospitals.

Under Dr. Lewin’s leadership, ACC has aspired to contribute greatly to national leadership in advocacy related to expanding access to care for uninsured persons, and in reforming Medicare, Medicaid, and the financing and delivery of quality health care. These efforts are part of ACC’s mission to promote “heart health” and reductions in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality worldwide. ACC has over 300 employees and an annual budget of over $90 million.

Prior to coming to ACC, Dr. Lewin was CEO of the 35,000 member California Medical Association and its various subsidiary companies. Lewin was also formerly Hawaii’s Director of Health from 1986-1994, overseeing 6,500 employees and a $1 Billion budget. In this role, he helped Hawaii achieve near-universal access to health care and revitalize statewide public health systems. In Hawaii, he was also CEO of the statewide 13-facility Community Hospital System.

Before that, as a Commissioned Officer in the USPHS, he was the founder and first director of the Navajo Nation Department of Health, serving the needs of America’s largest Native American tribe, straddling the three states of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

Trained in internal medicine, Dr. Lewin has also enjoyed many years of practicing primary care medicine during his career in Arizona, Hawaii, and California. He serves on numerous national boards and advisory bodies, including being founder and president of the Physicians’ Foundations, which are among the top ten health-related philanthropies in the nation, focused on promoting quality, patient safety, and health information technology adoption, and President of the national Patient Safety Institute. He was an advisor on health policy to President Clinton.

Dr. Lewin received his BA in biological sciences from the University of California, Irvine, and his MD from the University of Southern California. His hobbies include composing for piano, skiing, biking, kayaking and long-distance running, having completed over 25 marathons. He and his wife Sandra have three children.