Raj Panjabi

Why do we miss warning signs that seem obvious in hindsight? Why do we wait to act even when we sense something is wrong? Through candid stories from the White House Situation Room, the emergency room, and his own life, Dr. Raj Panjabi explores the psychology that can keep people and organizations from responding to threats before they become crises. Based on his forthcoming book, Safer, he shows audiences how to recognize risk more clearly, make decisions when the path forward is uncertain, and build the trust and connection that help people act together when it matters most.

What if we could stop disease before it starts? Artificial intelligence and biology are converging to change how we discover therapies, detect disease earlier, and prevent illness before it takes hold. These advances could also change the economics of healthcare as chronic disease places growing pressure on health systems. As a physician at Harvard and Mass General Brigham and Senior Partner at Flagship Pioneering, where he helps build companies at the frontier of AI and life sciences, Dr. Panjabi has a firsthand view of what is coming next. In this keynote, he reveals how advances in AI and biotechnology could help us live healthier for more of our lives, while shifting more of healthcare from treating disease to anticipating and preventing it.

The greatest breakthroughs in medicine mean little if they never reach the people who need them. Dr. Panjabi founded Last Mile Health at age 25 with a $6,000 wedding gift, growing it into a multimillion-dollar social enterprise recognized by Forbes as “a healthcare model for one billion people.”

That experience is at the heart of this keynote about one of healthcare’s most urgent challenges: closing the distance between what medicine can do and who it actually reaches. Having built a model that brings care directly into communities, Dr. Panjabi reveals what it takes to move innovation beyond the walls of traditional health systems and into people’s lives. His experience offers healthcare leaders a new way to think about access, cost, and how the resources already around them can help better care reach more people.

From pandemics to economic crises to growing political tensions and geopolitical unrest, there will always be various disruptions that leaders will have to guide their organizations through if they are to be successful. As a public health servant, business leader, and former White House official, Dr. Raj Panjabi has been at the forefront of the public response to some of the most disruptive events in recent history and draws from his experiences as a healthcare CEO and working in the White House Situation Room to share coveted wisdom on how to lead with impact in today’s ever-evolving world. Dr. Panjabi speaks about leading with purpose, how to navigate teams through crises, what it takes to successfully oversee a culture transformation, and how teams can communicate, collaborate, and innovate to optimal effect.

Thirty years ago, Dr. Raj Panjabi’s family fled from the civil war in Liberia and embraced the new possibilities that life in America offered. As the members of the family rebuilt their lives, his father’s mantra of “no condition is permanent” is what pushed them through the difficult times and provided the foundation for Dr. Panjabi’s incredible and inspiring journey to serving in the White House. In this fireside chat, Dr. Panjabi, who has been named by Forbes as one of America’s 250 greatest living immigrants celebrating the American Dream, one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the World, and one of Fortune’s 50 World’s Greatest Leaders, shares personal reflections on his journey to realizing his American dream, the future of healthcare, what it means to lead with purpose, and more of the topics that are of interest to your audience.