Meet Our Team

We are clinicians, public health professionals, and educators with one goal: 
 Tap the power of community to optimize the impact of interventions that address health-related social risks. 

Core Team

Rishi Manchanda MD MPH
President, HealthBegins; Founder

Aida Attar PhD
Program Manager

Linda Sharp MD
Senior Fellow, HealthBegins

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Our national network is made up of experts and educators who organize and support Community Health Detailing efforts in communities across the country.

Join our team

How did the campaign start?

In 2016, RIP Medical Debt, a 501c3 nonprofit founded by two former collections industry executives, helped HBO's John Oliver Show to buy and abolish $15 million in medical debt for just $60,000, which in turn helped over 9000 vulnerable families and raised national awareness of the burden of medical debt.

After seeing that show, the founder of HealthBegins contacted RIP Medical Debt to explore ways to collaborate. Founded by physicians who care for low-income and middle-class families, HealthBegins is a social enterprise that improves health by helping healthcare professionals address their patients' health-related social needs, like food, financial or housing insecurity. That conversation led to a successful campaign to abolish $1.5 million of medical debt for 1000 needy families in California's Central Valley, thanks to a $30,000 gift from an anonymous donor. Around the same time, accomplished researchers including health economists from UCLA, MIT, U.C. Berkeley, and University of Chicago started working with RIP Medical Debt to better understand the burden of medical debt in America. 

In February 2017, HealthBegins organized a meeting of physicians, advocates, researchers and the founders of RIP Medical Debt to learn how to abolish and prevent medical debt for vulnerable patients in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Campaign to End Medical Debt launched on March 1st.

On May 1, 2017, the Campaign to End Medical Debt expanded to other communities nationwide.