Salick completed an internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellowship in Nephrology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the University of California, Los Angeles.[9] After starting his nephrology practice in Beverly Hills, Salick opened a chain of dialysis clinics in 1972. He was elected to the board of trustees for the Hereditary Disease Foundation in 1975, where he served until 1985. He was also a member of the National Advisory Board for the National Kidney Foundation from 1988 to 1990.[8]
In 1975, Salick sold his dialysis chain to Damon Corp.[10] In 1983, he bought it back and founded a new company called Salick Health Care. He decided to start a new chain of outpatient cancer care clinics when his 6-year-old daughter was diagnosed with a sarcoma.[11][12] He opened his first cancer center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles in 1985.[13] By 1989, the company operated seven cancer care centers in partnership with major non-profit teaching hospitals including Temple University Hospital.[8] In the 1990s, the company expanded to a chain of 11 outpatient comprehensive cancer centers, 8 breast cancer treatment centers as well as multiple dialysis centers in Southern California, Florida, Philadelphia and New York.[14][15][16]
Salick Health Care went public in March 1985, raising $18 million, and another $30 million in 1986 through a bond offering. In 1995, the company sold 50 percent of its shares to Zeneca Group (now AstraZeneca)[17] which eventually acquired Salick Health Care in 1997 in a deal worth $450 million.[18][19][20]
In 1997, Salick started Bentley Health Care providing diagnostic and therapeutic services to patients with chronic, catastrophic illnesses such as cancer, end-stage renal disease, and AIDS.[1][21] He went into partnership with Montefiore Medical Center and Mount Sinai Medical Center to open outpatient cancer clinics and HIV/AIDS centers in New York and Florida.[1]
In April 1997, Salick donated $4.5 million to Queens College to create a new molecular biology research institute focusing initially on HIV/AIDS and hired Professor Luc Montagnier, co-discoverer of the AIDS virus to join as its first endowed chair.[22][23] Salick demanded and received the return of $3 million of his gift from the school when it failed to meet the conditions that had been attached to the gift.[24]
In 2006, Salick founded Salick Cardiovascular Centers to provide diagnostic and treatment services for cardiovascular disease. He is currently working on the development of a nationwide program of Comprehensive Diabetes Centers.[25]