Former Secretary of the VA David Shulkin Joins RapidSOS as Advisor for Healthcare Expansion

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Oct 26, 2020, 09:15 ET

NEW YORK, Oct. 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Honorable David Shulkin, M.D., the ninth United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs (2017-2018), is joining RapidSOS as an advisor to help guide its expansion into the healthcare industry. Secretary Shulkin will leverage almost 30 years of healthcare experience to advance RapidSOS's mission.

"RapidSOS is an amazing company that helps people get help faster. From my first introduction I saw this was a mission-driven organization that was looking to make a real difference," said Shulkin. "Few people understand the limitations of our current emergency response system, and through RapidSOS['s platform] we can make meaningful improvements."

Our nation's emergency response system was built in the 1960s for analog phones, preventing first responders from accessing additional data beyond what can be articulated through a phone call. The RapidSOS emergency response data platform helps first responders access life-saving data during emergencies by sharing data from over 350 million connected devices and platforms.

Widely considered one of the most prominent advocates of patient-centered care, Shulkin believes the RapidSOS platform is crucial to improving healthcare quality and effectiveness, as well as our nation's capacity to respond to public health emergencies like the mental health crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.

As Secretary of the VA, Shulkin represented 21 million American veterans and was responsible for the nation's largest integrated healthcare system. Shulkin previously served as the chief executive of several leading hospitals and healthcare providers, including Beth Israel and Morristown Medical Center. He is also an entrepreneur, serving as the founder and CEO of DoctorQuality, one of the first consumer-oriented sources for quality and safety information in healthcare.

Shulkin received his M.D. from the Medical College of Pennsylvania. He is also a board-certified internist, as well as the University of Pennsylvania Leonard Davis Institute Distinguished Health Policy Fellow.

"With the goal of providing high quality care that is accessible to all citizens, I hope we can see an overall upgrade in our approach to identifying patients in need and getting them care in the shortest period of time," said Shulkin. "Too many people are receiving care too late and suffer poor outcomes."

Secretary Shulkin will work alongside RapidSOS's growing healthcare team on strategy and product development, to help advance our mission of data-driven emergency response.

About RapidSOS
In partnership with public safety, RapidSOS has created the world's first emergency response data platform that securely links life-saving data from 350M+ connected devices directly to 911 and first responders. Through the platform, RapidSOS provides intelligent data that supports over 4,800 Emergency Communications Centers, protecting 90%+ of people in the US, across 250 million emergencies annually. Together with innovative companies certified as RapidSOS Ready, RapidSOS is supporting the nation's heroic first responders in saving millions of lives annually.

To learn more about our technology that's protecting lives, visit www.rapidsos.com.

Contact
Sunshine Sachs
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SOURCE RapidSOS