Dr. Kavita Patel

physician and health policy researcher

Dr. Kavita Patel is a teaching professor of medicine, Division of Hospital Medicine, at Stanford University and a board-certified internal medicine physician. She served in the Obama administration as director of policy for the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement in the White House. Her area of expertise is around the intersection of health policy, clinical medicine and innovation. She also spends time advising venture capital and is a medical contributor for NBC News.


Latest from

Dr. Kavita Patel

4mos ago
MS NOW Opinion

RFK Jr. is propagating a dangerous myth about mental health treatment and violence

The health secretary’s comments contort the conversation surrounding mental health, violence and care in America.

5mos ago
MS NOW Opinion

Why is RFK Jr. eliminating all the medical experts who can keep us healthy?

Kennedy’s justification for these purges reveals his fundamental misunderstanding of how medical science works.

6mos ago
MS NOW Opinion

As a doctor, here’s why I’m watching this exceedingly rare lawsuit against RFK Jr.

Kennedy, who spent years promoting debunked theories that vaccines aren’t safe, is systematically dismantling evidence-based medicine and imperiling the public’s health.

7mos ago
MS NOW Opinion

The FDA’s misguided new Covid vaccine policy repeats past mistakes

Its new guidance would trade the clarity and reach of our current strategy for a confusing framework that simply doesn’t fit reality.

8mos ago
MS NOW Opinion

How Biden’s cancer diagnosis could have gone undetected

While most prostate cancers grow slowly, aggressive varieties like the former president’s can progress much more rapidly.

10mos ago
MS NOW Opinion

Don’t believe what RFK Jr. says about measles — or french fries

The HHS secretary sinks to new levels of misinformation when he blames this measles outbreak on nutrition and when he praises beef-fried french fries as healthier.

10mos ago
MS NOW Opinion

Covid fractured American society, and five years later, we still haven’t healed

The Covid-19 pandemic reveals itself not as a singular event but as a multifaceted crisis that exposed deep-seated fault lines in American society.

10mos ago
MS NOW Opinion

Measles is back — and RFK Jr. isn’t taking it seriously

When our health secretary responds to the first measles deaths in decades with a jumble of pseudoscience and platitudes, we’ve reached a moral crossroads in public health.

10mos ago
MS NOW Opinion

Trump is already failing the first public health test of his second term

The president’s anti-vaccine messaging and cuts to public health workers aren’t helping as Texas faces a measles outbreak.

1year ago
MS NOW Opinion

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will not make anybody healthier

Imagine an America where proven treatments are questioned, long-established safety nets are dismantled and misinformation guides critical health policies.