Dr. Amjad Riar completed internal medicine training at St. Agnes Hospital and Johns Hopkins
Baltimore. He completed his fellowship in palliative medicine at George Washington University.
Prior to joining Baltimore medical system for several years Dr. Riar was division vice president
and national medical director for Kindred Healthcare. In this role with nation’s largest postacute and community care provider he was responsible for clinical operational excellence and
managed post-acute care operations, clinical quality while oversee 126 medical directors in the
community settings across 18 states. He was also senior medical director at Optum/United
Healthcare and helped setup end-to-end post-acute care continued care model leveraging
telehealth and predict analytics to reduce costs and improve quality of care for health plan
members. He joined Baltimore Medical System as Senior consulting medical officer and Center
Medical Director responsible for system’s second largest health center’s day-to-day operations
and quality. He helped strengthen hospital partnership and improved center operational
workflows and was recently appointed to system’s Chief Operating Officer. In his current role as
Chief Operating Officer he is responsible and leads team for expansion projects, systems
modernization projects, pharmacy operations, managed care organization contract
management, and overall company’s strategic direction.
Dr. Riar is a Certified Physician Executive by the Commission on Medical Management and
fellow of American association of physician leadership, American academy of hospice and
palliative medicine, and American college of physicians.
For many years he has been at the forefront of healthcare regulatory and public policy both at
state and national levels. He spoke at Capitol Hill with congressional leaders for pre
congressional committee meeting by 111th congressional leadership to provide input on
Affordable Care Act in the area affecting chronic care related models.
At local and state levels he served the Montgomery Care Advisory Board (MCAB), a county
funded network of SafetyNet clinics focused on reducing health care disparities in primary care
and maternal infant mortality for the county residents unable to afford healthcare. MCAB
responsibilities included funding the SafetyNet clinics to help increase access for
underprivileged county residents providing primary care to approximately 40 thousand county
residents. In 2009 he received governors’ volunteer award, a highest state level civil award. This
award cited for making meaningful contributions to the lives of Marylanders. To improve the
quality of life while reduce overall healthcare costs, he authored Maryland palliative care access
legislation and educated 137 lawmakers in Annapolis about healthcare cost savings and
importance of quality care. Dr. Riar successfully helped to legislate a bipartisan palliative care
bill into state law mandating provision of palliative care service in all Maryland hospitals. He
also helped initiate primary care at home model for Cigna in Baltimore city for the residents
with complex medical conditions and low socioeconomic status. Program grew to several
hundred home-based patients within few months of initiating the home-based primary care
program and helped reduce hospital admissions and increased patient access to primary care in
the community by also addressing social determinants of health.
