Pedram Salimpour is an Iranian-American physician-scientist, author, professor, entrepreneur and business executive. He is the co-founder of CareNex Health Services (now part of Anthem, Champion Health Enterprises, and Plymouth Health, the latter of which previously owned Alvarado Hospital in San Diego. He has served on numerous boards and is the youngest president in the history of the Los Angeles County Medical Association, a title he has held since 2014. Salimpour is also the first two-time recipient of the American College of Physicians' Research Award. As a keynote speaker he delivered the commencement address to the University of California, Riverside's 2008 graduating class, and gave the keynote address at the 2012 annual colloquium for the Whitehead Institute at MIT in 2012.
Early life and education
Salimpour was born and raised in Tehran, Iran during the Iranian Revolution in the late 1970s. At the age of 10, he was forced to stop playing the piano due to the ban on Western music implemented by radical clerics who were put in place during the revolution. He immigrated along with his family to the United States, six months after his older brother Pejman Salimpour had immigrated to the U.S. Salimpour moved to Los Angeles at age 12 where his father eventually opened his own medical practice after working for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He mastered the English language from watching cartoons in English. During his early childhood in Iran, he had previously watched the same cartoons that were dubbed into Persian. He stated that he was able to make the association between the languages after watching the same cartoons again in English. He spoke fluent English without an accent by the time he began junior high school in Woodland Hills in 1981.
Salimpour attended the University of California, Riverside upon graduating from high school. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the school in 1990. He went on to attend UCLA where he earned his Master's Degree in Public Health, Health Services Administration in 1992. Salimpour attended Boston University School of Medicine where he earned a medical degree in 2000. During his time at Boston University, he authored a widely publicized research project that studied the tie between erectile dysfunction to frequent bicycle riding. His study was attributed as the first scientific proof that there is a significantly higher chance of being impotent if you are a cyclist. He was also a principle in the research that led to the introduction of Viagra, later creating the first department of sexual medicine in the United States. He completed his residency at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California Medical Center. He returned to the University of California, Riverside as a keynote speaker, giving the commencement address to the school's 2008 graduating class.
Career
Salimpour's early career as a physician is linked to the Salimpour Pediatric Medical Group, a pediatric center operated by his father Ralph Salimpour in the greater Los Angeles area. As an entrepreneur, he is the co-founder of three medical companies, one of which previously owned one of San Diego's largest hospitals. He is the co-founder of CareNex Health Services, a health-care technology company that specializes in neonatal and perinatal disease management. The company was founded in 2005 along with his brother Pejman and was acquired by WellPoint (now Anthem) in 2013. The brothers also founded the physician-owned company Plymouth Health, formed for the purpose of acquiring Alvarado Hospital in San Diego. The previous owner of the hospital, Tenet Healthcare Corporation, was accused of paying kickbacks to physicians for referrals to the hospital. As part of a settlement from a civil complaint filed against them, Tenet agreed to sell the hospital and pay a settlement of $21 million. Salimpour and his brother paid approximately $36.5 million for the hospital and invested millions of dollars to upgrade the hospital's equipment and bring in some of the nation's top physicians prior to selling the hospital to Prime Healthcare in 2010.