Rush Health Chief Medical Officer Garth Walker, MD, MPH, has been named one of Crain’s Chicago Business’ 40 Under 40 young business and civic leaders.
Walker is part of a 2024 class that Crain's says is "leading Chicago into the future."
Originally trained as an emergency medicine physician, Walker has emerged as a national leader in helping health public health departments and health systems build care models that will allow everyone the chance to be healthy.
Walker saw early in his career that the root causes of the conditions that send too many Black and brown patients to the emergency room are unmet social needs, like lack of access to food, transportation or a job with health insurance.
His determination to address these structural barriers to health has driven and defined Walker’s career. In Illinois, he served as the deputy director for the Illinois Department of Public Health at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading internal and external public health strategies to enhance vaccination rates and coordinate operations across state departments.
“He just understands health care, how it works, the politics behind it and the challenges that we're facing in the future,” Rush President and CEO Dr. Omar Lateef told Crain’s. “When you meet a person like that, you just want him in your organization.”
As medical director of the organization’s clinically integrated network, Walker’s role requires him to ensure Rush is meeting care quality standards and achieving cost savings for 160,000 patients represented by various value-based care arrangements. The job demands a delicate balance of maintaining high health care quality and achieving financial savings.
Under his leadership, Rush earned $32 million in performance-based incentives for shared savings efforts last year. Walker also led Rush in establishing a partnership with CVS Health on a program that's focused on strengthening primary care outcomes across the Chicago area.
“I’m proud to be recognized for these achievements," Walker said, "and prouder still to be part of the Rush efforts to show that health equity strategies are needed and achievable. Everyone having a chance to be healthy is a goal we can work towards as institution and a society.”
