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Dr. Jonathan B. Perlin was nominated by President George W. Bush to serve as Under Secretary for Health in the Department of Veterans Affairs on Feb. 18, 2005, and confirmed by the Senate on April 28, 2005. As the Chief Executive Officer of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Dr. Perlin leads the nation’s largest integrated health system.
VHA provides health care to more than 5.1 million veterans and 7.6 million enrollees throughout the United States. With a medical care budget of approximately $30 billion, VHA directly employs more than 196,500 health care professionals at more than 1,300 sites of care, including hospitals, community and facility-based clinics, nursing homes, domiciliaries, readjustment counseling centers, and various other facilities. In addition to its medical care mission, VHA is the nation's largest provider of graduate medical education and a major contributor to medical and scientific research. More than 125,000 volunteers, 80,000 health profession trainees, and 25,000 affiliated medical faculty are also an integral part of the VHA community.
Prior to his nomination, Dr. Perlin served as Acting Under Secretary for Health since April 6, 2004, and Deputy Under Secretary for Health from July 2002 to April 2004. He also served as VHA’s Acting Chief Research and Development Officer from December 2003 to July 2004, directing a $1.8 billion research program specializing in basic, clinical, rehabilitation and health services research.
Dr. Perlin was VHA’s Chief Quality and Performance Officer from 1999 to 2002. In that role, he was responsible for supporting quality improvement and performance management. VA is one of two federal agencies recognized twice by Congress for “managing for results.” VHA’s Quality and Performance program has been specifically recognized by the Innovations in American Government and the RIT-USA Today Quality Cup Programs.
Dr. Perlin’s background includes health care quality management, medical education, health information technologies, medical education, and health services research. Prior to joining VHA, Dr. Perlin served as medical director for Quality Improvement at the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals – Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Health System. At VCU, he helped establish the Health Services Research Fellowship in the Division of Quality Health Care, Department of Internal Medicine, and was associate director of the Internal Medicine Residency Training Program. Dr. Perlin is broadly published and maintains an academic appointment as adjunct associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Dr. Perlin held previous appointments at the Richmond VA Medical Center, where he led in the development and implementation of the “Firm (group practice) System” and served as a firm director. He was the inaugural chief of the Telemedicine Section and developed an interstate network for providing clinical consultation as well as distributed education and administration.
A Fellow of the American College of Physicians, Dr. Perlin has a master’s of science in health administration. He received his Ph.D. in pharmacology and toxicology (performing research in molecular neurobiology) with his M.D. as part of the Medical Scientist Training Program at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Medical College of Virginia Campus.
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