David Lubarsky, M.D., M.B.A., F.A.S.A., is the Vice Chancellor of Human Health Sciences and CEO for UC Davis Health, located in Sacramento, California. UC Davis Health is an integrated health system with approximately 17,000 employees, 1,000 students, 1,000 trainees, 1,300 faculty members and a large regional primary care network, providing more than 1.5 million outpatient visits every year with an annual budget of $4.3 billion. Dr. Lubarsky has increased UC Davis Health’s revenues by more than 50% since arriving in July 2018.
Dr. Lubarsky oversees UC Davis Health’s academic, research and clinical programs, including the top 50 School of Medicine, the top 50 Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, and the top 50 UC Davis Medical Center, a 648-bed Level 1 Trauma hospital consistently ranked among the nation’s best by U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, and Becker’s. UC Davis Medical Center, in partnership with Shriners, operates a top 50 children’s hospital as well. UC Davis Health is an innovation hub for biomedical discoveries that helps advance health around the world, and is ranked in the top 35 nationally for medical research.
In 2022, Dr. Lubarsky was recognized by Modern Healthcare as one of the “100 Most Influential People in Health Care.” Since joining UC Davis Health in July 2018, Dr. Lubarsky has recommitted the organization to expanding care for the underserved, and caring for Medi-Cal patients and others with few resources while creating a sustainable financial model. Among the new initiatives, Dr. Lubarsky established a partnership with Sacramento County Health Services to expand primary and specialty care to the underserved, reform the managed care system, and address the crisis in mental illness and homelessness. He also positioned UC Davis Health as a resource to complete, not compete with, other health systems to improve access and care throughout the region.
A strong proponent of physicians and academic medical centers playing a leading role in shaping health care policy, he brought all 1,000 physicians into the California Medical Association and its Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society. He embraces team practice and advanced nursing practice, with the Schools of Medicine and Nursing pursuing new levels of interprofessional learning, training and practice.
With UC Davis Health serving more than half of California’s counties as the only academic medical center between San Francisco and Portland, he partnered with Adventist Health and the California Medical Association to address recruiting, training and retaining doctors in rural areas throughout Northern California, and championed novel training programs to advance rural and inner city care now embraced by the AMA as national models. To adapt to health care’s evolution and leverage UC Davis’ early success in creating California’s telehealth backbone, he’s creating a digital platform and virtual hospital to lead in technology and connectivity while reinforcing the values of empathy, inclusivity and a patient-centric ethic.
Dr. Lubarsky was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to the statewide governor’s Alzheimer’s Disease Task Force and is proud of UC Davis Health’s nation-leading Alzheimer’s research program, ranked 14th nationally in Alzheimer’s research funding. UC Davis takes a public health approach to its studies and programs, measuring the toll of the disease across the social spectrum, identifying groups that are disproportionately impacted, and researching the differences between Alzheimer’s and dementia. UC Davis Health’s national ranking in geriatric care — 23rd nationally by U.S. News — is another important part of supporting patients, as well as caregivers through a nationally-modeled Family Caregiving Institute.
A committed academic physician, he is a UC Davis professor of anesthesiology, nursing and business, and is on the faculty of the UC Davis Graduate School of Management. Previously, Dr. Lubarsky was chief medical officer and systems integration officer at the University of Miami Health System, pioneering the current integrated structure as the first CEO of the system’s 1,100-physician practice. He was also a professor of anesthesiology and department chair in Miami’s Miller School of Medicine, a professor in the Schools of Business and Nursing, and before Miami, a professor and vice chair at Duke University and adjunct professor at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. He’s one of the top 100 published anesthesiologists in America.
Dr. Lubarsky earned his Bachelor of Arts in history (1980) and medical degree (1984) at Washington University in St. Louis. He completed an anesthesia residency and a fellowship in cardiovascular anesthesia and clinical research at New York University Medical Center. He received his MBA (1999) from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, graduating at the top of his class.