Kavita Patel is a Fellow and Managing Director in the Engelberg Center for Healthcare Reform at the Brookings Institution in the United States where she leads research on delivery system reforms, healthcare cost, physician payment and healthcare workforce productivity. Patel is also a practicing primary care physician at Johns Hopkins Medicine and a clinical instructor at UCLA's Geffen School of Medicine. Previously, she was Director of Policy at the White House under US President Barack Obama and a Senior Adviser to the late Senator Edward Kennedy. Her prior research in healthcare quality and community approaches to mental illness have earned national recognition. She has published numerous papers and book chapters on healthcare reform and health policy, and has testified before the US Congress several times. Patel is a frequent guest expert on CBS, NBC and MSNBC as well as serving on the editorial board of the journal Health Affairs.