Becker’s Healthcare Podcast Nariman Heshmati, MD, MBA, FACOG, Chief Physician and Operations Executive at Lee Physician Group
Feb 21, 2026
Nariman Heshmati, MD, MBA, FACOG, Chief Physician and Operations Executive at Lee Physician Group, is an OBGYN-turned-clinical leader driving care innovation. He discusses designing a multidisciplinary diabetes program, simplifying patient access and workflows, priorities for 2026 including chronic care expansion and AI evaluation, and strategies to support clinician wellbeing and recruitment.
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Diabetes Program That Extended Lives
- Nariman Heshmati describes a diabetes program that enrolled several hundred patients and paired them with dietitians and clinical pharmacists.
- The first 300–400 enrollees saw average A1C reductions of about 1.7, which he ties to 2–3 added years of life expectancy.
Make Chronic Care Simple And Automatic
- Design chronic-care pathways the way cancer centers coordinate care: bundle steps, co-locate services and assign navigators.
- Remove barriers and make enrollment and follow-up automatic so patients don't wonder who to call or what to do.
Shift From Episodic To Chronic Management
- Healthcare must shift from episodic care to proactive chronic disease management across conditions like diabetes, hypertension and CHF.
- That shift requires scalable programs and simpler patient access to reduce hospitalizations and improve long-term outcomes.