Dr. Phillips is the Founding Executive Director of The Center for Professionalism & Value in Health Care in Washington, DC which aims to create space in which patients, health professionals, payers, and policy makers can work to renegotiate the social contract. He is a practicing family physician with training in health services and primary care research. His research seeks to inform clinical care and policies that support it. He leads a national primary care registry with related research on social determinants of health, rural health, and changes in primary care practice.

Dr. Phillips has often served Health and Human Services including as vice-chair of the U.S. Council on Graduate Medical Education, co-chair of the Population Health subcommittee of the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, and on the Negotiated Rule-Making Committee on Shortage Designation. Dr. Phillips was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2010 and currently serves as the chair of the it's Membership Committee. He was a Fulbright Specialist to the Netherlands and New Zealand, and advisor to the Health Ministers of Australia and the Province of Alberta. 

Dr. Phillips completed medical school at the University of Florida where he graduated with honors for special distinction. He trained clinically in family medicine at the University of Missouri where he also completed a National Research Service Award fellowship. Dr Phillips has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers, essays, editorials, and book chapters.