Ahmed Calvo, MD, MPH
Director
National Leadership Fellowship on Health Policy and Public Service
Stanford University Haas Center for Public Service
haas.stanford.edu
Senior Medical Officer
Health Resource and Services Administration
US Department of Health and Human Services
www.hrsa.gov
Ahmed Calvo, MD, MPH, is Director of the National Leadership Fellowship on Health Policy and Public Service, Haas Center for Public Service, Stanford University; Senior Fellow and Advisor, Thought Leadership and Innovations Foundation; Immediate Past-President, Hispanic Employees Organization, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS-HEO); and member of the National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA). Dr. Calvo has wide policy and advisory experience as principal of multiple consulting firms and has been on clinical faculty at the medical schools at Stanford, UCSF, and UCSD. He has been a consultant to the Department of Defense (DOD), most recently co-leading the Health Futures Group in support of the Joint Medical Chair for Global Health, National Defense University (NDU), under Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, Dr. Jonathan Woodson. Current focus is on the Digital Dividends for All efforts and the Global Partnership on Sustainable Development Data. In his day job over a decade, Dr. Calvo has been Director and Chief Medical Officer for the Breakthrough Collaboratives of the Health Disparities Collaboratives operated by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); Chief of the Clinical Quality Improvement Branch, Bureau of Primary Health Care; Acting Deputy Director of the HRSA Center for Quality, Office of the Administrator, HRSA; Chief Medical Officer, Senior Advisor and Acting Director Office of Health IT and Quality, HRSA; and Vice-Chair, HHS Medical Claims Review Panel for the Federal Torts Claim Act (FTCA), with Dr. Anand Parekh, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health, HHS, housed within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH). Dr. Calvo focused on dissemination science and quality improvement (QI) Breakthrough Collaboratives, including HRSA quality systems and quality metrics; enabling HHS quality strategies; evolving federal systems thinking on QI methods; and developing a community-led whole-of-nation effort known as the National Health Strategy for Wellbeing and Prosperity. Evolution of the Healthy Communities Collaborative for America (HCCA) and the Creating Wellbeing Leadership Group (CWLG) influenced the Escape Velocity Guiding Coalition for Wellbeing (now known as the 100 Million Healthier Lives Campaign) currently led by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) with private foundations, philanthropy entities, corporate supporters, and communities of solution. Current research includes evidence-based methods of dissemination science and translational science, applied to clinical and operational QI at local, regional, national and international levels. Building on Dr. Ed Wagner’s “Chronic Care Model” developed at the McColl Institute in Seattle. Dr. Calvo evolved the “Expanded Care Model” and the “Comprehensive Health Home Model,” used by the HHS Healthy Weight Breakthrough Collaborative to address community and national levels systems linkages of primary care and public health; and the Patient Safety and Pharmacy Collaborative (PSPC). The PSPC was scaled-up nationally by HHS in adding all of the Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) funded by CMS and now active in the form of the AIMM Collaborative. These models also have influenced the National Quality Strategy and HHS contracts with the NQF regarding the National Priorities Partnership (NPP) and the Measures Application Partnership (MAP), as well as the Multiple Chronic Conditions Framework developed by the OASH. Dr. Calvo was an integral member of all these national committees; helping to apply the thrust “going from healthcare to health” that came out of the Health Futures Group. Prior to joining HRSA, Dr. Calvo was Director of Medical Education at Scripps in San Diego, and Medical Director of the San Ysidro Health Center, a large Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) community health center network on the California-Baja California Border Area that evolved emergency operations center (EOC) capacity for emergency preparedness by using mobile clinics. Dr. Calvo has been in active clinical practice for over 30 years; was CEO and Chairman of the Board for a variety of medical groups in private practice; and was President of several chapters of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). Apart from systems-level collaborations on national workforce analysis and integrative medicine, Dr. Calvo also completed publication of a special theme issue of the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved titled: “Evidence for Informing the Next Generation of Quality Improvement Initiatives: Models, Methods, Measures, and Outcomes” functioning as Senior Guest Editor for the HRSA and NIH funded special themed issue. Dr Calvo was a Lyndon B. Johnson Congressional Intern on Capitol Hill, and, as a medical student, a member of what became the UCSF Phil Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies. A graduate of Stanford University, the UCSF School of Medicine, and the UCSD/SDSU School of Public Health program, Dr. Calvo also completed multiple advanced faculty development fellowships at UCSD focused on care of the underserved; as well as the National Leadership Fellowship at the NYU Wagner School of Public Service (with the National Hispanic Medical Association). He was born and raised in Costa Rica.