Dhruv Khullar, M.D.

Dhruv Khullar is a practicing physician, scholar, and writer whose work sits at the intersection of medicine, health policy, and the human experience.

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Dr. Khullar is an Associate Professor of Medicine and of Population Health Sciences at Weill Cornell Medical College. He is also the Director of the Physicians Foundation Center for the Study of Physician Practice and Leadership, and an Associate Director of the Cornell Health Policy Center. His research focuses on value-based care, health care consolidation, and medical innovation, and has been published in JAMA and The New England Journal of Medicine. In his clinical role, Dr. Khullar practices as a hospitalist, focusing on care of seriously ill hospitalized patients.

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Beyond the hospital and lab, Dr. Khullar is also a prominent voice in public discourse on health care. He is a contributing writer at The New Yorker, where he covers medicine, policy, politics, and the evolving challenges facing health systems. He has also written for the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and other outlets.

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In his speaking engagements, he has spoken about health care reform, medical ethics, health care innovation and emerging technologies, the politics of health care, and the future of the U.S. health care system. He emphasizes building compassionate, high-performing health systems, the doctor–patient relationship, what it means to be a healer in a high-tech, high-pressure system, the role of trust, emotion, and bias in medical decision-making, among other topics. His speaking style is thoughtful, compassionate, and grounded in both evidence and lived experience.

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Dr. Khullar earned his M.D. from Yale School of Medicine and completed his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital. He also holds a Master's in Public Policy (M.P.P.) from the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a fellow at the Center for Public Leadership. He has been recognized by LinkedIn as a Top Healthcare Professional, by the National Minority Quality Forum as a 40 Under 40 Leader in Health, and by FASPE with the 2019 Distinguished Fellow Award for Ethical Leadership. His writing was featured in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2025.