Health Policy Forum

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Researchers at Harvard


Decision Science

·          Kenneth A. Freedberg, M.D.  Dr. Freedberg's research interests include decision analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, and clinical epidemiology, particularly related to HIV clinical care and policy.

·          G. Scott Gazelle, M.D., Ph.D.  Dr. Gazelle's research focuses on evaluating the benefits, costs, and appropriate uses of new medical technologies.

·          Sue J. Goldie, M.D., M.P.H.  Her research interests include methods and applications of decision and cost-effectiveness analysis to evaluate population based health care, particularly screening and prevention of virally transmitted sexually transmitted diseases.

·          James K. Hammitt, Sc.M., M.P.P., Ph.D.. His research concerns personal and social decision making about risks to health and the environment, in the U.S. and other countries.

·          Karen M. Kuntz, M.S., Sc.D.  Her research focuses on the methodology and application of decision and cost-effectiveness analysis in the evaluation of medical technologies.

·          Tracy A. Lieu, Ph.D.  Dr. Lieu's research focuses on primary care delivery, family-centered outcomes, and cost-effectiveness.

·          Peter J. Neumann, Sc.D.  His research focuses on economic evaluations of medical technologies, including ongoing evaluations of pharmacological and other treatments for Alzheimer's disease, lung cancer, asthma, and infertility.

·          Lisa A. Prosser, M.S., Ph.D.  Dr. Prosser's primary research interests are (1) economic evaluations of health interventions, (2) patient and community preferences regarding outcomes and treatments, and (3) resource allocation decisions in managed care organizations.

·          Joshua Salomon, Ph.D.  Dr. Salomon's primary research interests lie in three broad areas: measurement of population health status and health valuations in community surveys; modeling and forecasting health outcomes; and evaluation of the potential impact and cost-effectiveness of health interventions.

·          Kimberly M. Thompson, Sc.D.  Her research focuses on evaluation and characterization of environmental, medical, and safety risks and the impacts of considering uncertainty on public policy.

·          Milton C. Weinstein, Ph.D.  His research concerns resource allocation in medicine and public health, with a focus on policy modeling and cost-effectiveness/cost-benefit analysis in HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, and cardiovascular disease.

 

Health Economics

·          Ernst Berndt, Ph.D.  Current research interests include a cross-country study of factors affecting differential rates of diffusion of new medicines in various types of health care systems, the effects of medical journal and physician detailing on the commercial success of various generations of gastrointestinal medicines, and the impact of mental health disorders on the subsequent labor market and retirement behavior of middle-aged employees.

·          David Bloom, Ph.D.  He has written extensively on the determinants of wages, fringe benefits, and total family income; the adjudication of labor disputes; the measurement of discrimination; the emerging world labor market; the effects of rapid population growth; the economics of municipal solid waste; the sociology and economics of marriage and fertility; and the global spread and economic impacts of HIV and AIDS.

·          David Canning, Ph.D.  Professor Canning's research focuses on the role of demographic change and health improvements in economic development.

·          David M. Cutler, Ph.D.  His interests are in the cost and financing of medical care, markets for health insurance, measuring and assessing changes in health, and the design of public health programs.

·          Richard G. Frank, Ph.D.  Dr. Frank's interests are in economics of mental health, physician compensation arrangements, nonprofit organizations, and the economics of the pharmaceutical industry.

·          David Hemenway, M.A., Ph.D.  His research focuses on injury prevention, including policy issues concerning alcohol, motor vehicles, falls and fractures, suicide, violence, and firearms. His work in the medical care area emphasizes the role of financial incentives in affecting behavior.

·          William Hsiao, M.P.A., Ph.D.  His research has concentrated on the development of national health insurance, cost containment measures, and payment methods for hospitals and physician services.

·          Haiden Huskamp, Ph.D.  Her research focuses primarily on the economics of mental health and substance abuse, the economics of the pharmaceutical industry, and the financing of care at the end of life.

·          Thomas G. McGuire, Ph.D.  Dr. McGuire conducts research on a) health care payment systems and their effect on cost, services, and quality; b) economics of mental health; and c) the sources of racial and ethnic disparities in health care use.

·          Ellen Meara, Ph.D.  Most of her research examines economic determinants of health.

·          Christopher Murray, M.D., D. Phil.  A physician and health economist, his early work focused on tuberculosis control and the development of the pioneering Global Burden of Disease project at Harvard University. Recently, he has initiated major new approaches to the measurement of population health, cost-effectiveness analysis and the conceptualization, measurement and national application of health systems performance assessment.

·          Joseph P. Newhouse, Ph.D.  Dr. Newhouse is best known for his work on the financing and organization of medical care services. His current research centers on effects of variation in supply prices, variation in co-payments within drug formularies and for emergency departments, and health plan decisions on entering smaller markets.

·          Marc Roberts, Ph.D.  He has focused much of his work on health sector reform around the world.

·          Meredith Rosenthal, Ph.D.  Currently, her research interests revolve around financial incentives for quality in managed care. Her other interests include mental health and substance abuse policy, prescription drug spending and promotion, and managed care markets.

·          Katherine Swartz, M.S., Ph.D.  Her research interests relate to three issues: people who lack health insurance and how their access to health care might be financed; how insurance companies might protect themselves from the risk that their insured lives may use more dollars of medical care than expected; and how managed care organizations and other third party payers can create financial incentives to encourage physicians to be cost conscious in making decisions about medical care.

·          David Wise, Ph.D.  His past research includes analysis of youth employment, the economics of education and schooling decisions, and methodological econometric work. His work now focuses on issues related to population aging, and he directs a large project on the economics of aging and health care.

·          Winnie Yip, B.A., Ph.D.  Her major research interests include economic analysis on 1) physician payment incentives and practice pattern, 2) the impact of managed care organizations on competition in the health care sector, and 3) financing of health care in less developed countries.

·          Richard J. Zeckhauser, Ph.D.  Dr. Zeckhauser's ongoing policy investigations explore ways to promote the health of human beings, to help labor and financial markets operate more efficiently, and to foster informed and appropriate choices by individuals and government agencies.

 

Health Law and Ethics

·          Allan M. Brandt, Ph.D.  Dr. Brandt is known for his work on the history of sexually transmitted disease and is working now on the history of smoking policy.

·          Troyen A. Brennan, M.D., J.D., M.P.H.  Dr. Brennan's research emphasizes quality assurance, malpractice litigation, and access to medical care.

·          Dan W. Brock, M.D.  His current research focuses on ethical issues in health care resource prioritization and allocation, with special concentration on cost-effectiveness, and on ethical issues in genetic selection, both to avoid disabilities and to enhance normal function.

·          Daniel P. Carpenter, Ph.D.  Dr. Carpenter's health policy interests are government regulation of pharmaceuticals (FDA and worldwide), public attention to disease, network analysis of health policy lobbies and policymaking, historical development of markets and regulatory institutions, and the impact of placebo effects upon learning in markets for health care.

·          Norman Daniels, Ph. D.  His research is on justice and health policy, with particular emphasis on the distribution of health care resources and fair process in such decisions, fairness in the design of health systems and health reforms, and equity in population health.

·          Lisa Lehmann, M.D., Ph.D., M.Sc.  She is actively engaged in philosophical and empirical research in ethical issues in genetics, research ethics, truth telling in medicine, and religion and medicine.

·          Michelle Mello, J.D., Ph.D., M.Phil.  She conducts research into developments in health care law and policy, particularly issues relating to the tort liability system.

·          David G. Stevenson, M.S., Ph.D.  His research interests include aging, disability, and long-term care. He is particularly interested in the consumer's role in nursing home quality and in the balance between market forces and government regulation in assuring quality of care.

·          David Studdert, LL.B., Sc.D., M.P.H.  Dr. Studdert is involved in a series of projects that bring quantitative and qualitative methods to bear on issues at the intersection of law and health.

·          Daniel Wikler, Ph.D.  His research interests include health resource allocation, including the assignment of responsibility for health outcomes, and ethical issues arising in international health research.

Evaluative Sciences and Statistics

·          John Z. Ayanian M.D., M.P.P.  Dr. Ayanian's research interests focus on access to care and quality of care for major chronic conditions in adults, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and end-stage renal disease.

·          Arnold M. Epstein, M.D., M.A.  Dr. Epstein's major areas of interest have been in examining access to care and quality of care, especially for vulnerable populations.

·          Mary Beth Landrum, Ph.D.  Her research focuses on the development and application of statistical methodology for health services research.

·          Jonathan Levy, Sc.D.  His current research focus in this area involves the estimation of the benefits of emission controls at older fossil-fueled power plants.

·          Marie C. McCormick, M.D., Sc.D.  Dr. McCormick is known for her work in the epidemiology of infant mortality, addressing child health outcomes especially among very low birth weight infants, and evaluation of maternal and child health programs.

·          Thomas McLaughlin, Sc.D.  His own mental health research focuses on quality improvement programs for depression, attention deficit disorder, and depression comorbid with somatic illness. Dr. McLaughlin also works with statisticians to translate statistical theory to applications in health policy analysis.

·          Barbara J. McNeil, M.D., Ph.D.  Her recent interests include the development and implementation of quality indicators for chronic cardiac disease.

·          Carl N. Morris, Ph.D.  He works on a wide range of problems in statistical theory and applications. Morris is noted for his research on hierarchical models and for his experimental design work for the RAND Health Insurance Experiment.

·          Megan Murray, M.D., M.P.H., Sc.D.  Her research focuses generally on the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases and more specifically, on the use of molecular epidemiological techniques to study the transmission of tuberculosis.

·          Sharon-Lise Normand, Ph.D.  Dr. Normand's methodological research focuses on Bayesian biostatistics with special emphasis on statistical methods for health services and outcomes research including assessment of quality of care, causal inference, profiling, and meta-analysis.

·          R. Heather Palmer, M.B., B.C.H., S.M.  Her research focuses on evaluation and improvement of quality of health care, particularly in ambulatory settings. She specializes in the development and evaluation of clinical performance measures and improvement programs.

·          Dennis Ross-Degnan, Sc.D.  His primary research interests are analyzing the impacts of pharmaceutical policies on utilization and clinical outcomes, evaluating behavioral strategies for improving the use of medicines in developing countries, and development of appropriate research methods for studying pharmaceutical use and quality improvement interventions.

·          Stephen B. Soumerai, M.S., Sc.D.  His principal research interests include methods for improving the quality of clinical decision-making, and the effects of prescription drug coverage and cost containment policies on clinical outcomes among vulnerable populations.

·          Alan M. Zaslavsky, M.S., Ph.D.  His methodological interests include design and analysis of surveys, Bayesian and hierarchical modeling, small area estimation, microsimulation, missing data, and categorical data.

Political analysis

·          Robert J. Blendon, M.B.A., Sc.D.  Dr. Blendon is best known for his research on public opinion and health policy. He has pioneered in studies of comparative public opinion.

·          Paul Peterson, M.A., Ph.D.  He is a specialist on American federalism and is currently studying the effects of the devolution of responsibility for health care policy from the national government to state and local governments.

Health Care Management

·          Jason R. Barro, Ph.D.  His research interests are in the area of the organizational structure of the health care industry, and issues of incentive systems, both in health care and more broadly.

·          Nancy Dean Beaulieu, Ph.D.  Her research interests in the healthcare industry fall into two categories: networks and other organizational arrangements, and performance measurement and quality competition in managed care. 

·          Richard Bohmer, M.D., M.P.H.  His research interests focus on the management of the process of medical care and the adoption of new technologies into medicine.

·          Amy Edmondson, Ph.D.  Her research investigates processes through which organizations learn and innovate, in particular, she studies how and under what conditions work groups learn.

·          Robert S. Huckman, Ph.D.  His research focuses on issues of technological innovation and market structure, with an emphasis on the health care industry.

·          Nancy Kane, D.B.A.  Dr. Kane’s research focuses on the financial and managerial performance of health care organizations.

·          Gary P. Pisano, Ph.D.  He has done research on the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and medical device industries.

·          Howard Rivenson, Ph.D.  Dr. Rivenson's primary interests are in the areas of accounting and financial management of health care organizations and especially short-term financial management issues.

·          Nancy Turnbull.  Her research interests include health insurance regulation, health care access, consumer participation in managed care plans, and international applications of managed care.

 

Medical Sociology and Other Areas

·          Margarita Alegría, M.D.  Her published work focuses on mental health care and substance abuse services in minority populations, conceptual and methodological issues with minority populations, risk behaviors, and disparities in service delivery.

·          Lisa F. Berkman, M.S., Ph.D.  She is a social epidemiologist whose research is focused on understanding the social determinants of health, particularly among the elderly.

·          Donald Berwick, M.D., M.P.P.  His major research interests include quality of health care, decision theory, cost-effectiveness analysis, health care policy, clinical pediatrics, and preventive medicine.

·          David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P.  His major research interests include: the effects of markets and other environmental factors on the behavior of health care organizations and physicians.

·          Nicholas A. Christakis, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H.  Dr. Christakis' research interests have focused on ways to enhance the care of terminally ill patients, including work on clinical and socioeconomic factors that influence the timing of the transition from curative to palliative care and work on whether and how physicians formulate and communicate prognoses.

·          Paul D. Cleary, Ph.D.  Dr. Cleary does research on how best to elicit and interpret patient reports about the process and outcomes of their medical care.

·          MaryJo DelVecchio Good, Ph.D.  Dr. Good's current research interests include cultural and comparative studies of biomedicine, bioethics, and biotechnology; globalization of medical knowledge and markets; and gender, health policy and international health.

·          Atul Gawande, M.D., M.A., M.P.H.  Dr. Gawande has focused their research on problems at the intersection of surgery and public health.

 

·          Steven Gortmaker, Ph.D.  Dr. Gortmaker's research is focused on the health of children and adolescents, particularly households living in poverty and minority populations.

·          Edward Guadagnoli, Ph.D.  His research focuses on assessing the quality and outcomes of health care, examining access to health care, and evaluating health care interventions.

·          Ashish Jha, M.D., M.P.H.  His research include: Quality of care provided by healthcare systems, with a focus on healthcare disparities as a marker of poor care; information technology, report cards and other tools as potential solutions for reducing medical errors and disparities while improving over-all quality.

·          Nancy Keating, M.D.  Dr. Keating's research interests include: 1) access to specialty care and communication and coordination of care among generalists and specialists, 2) the role of organizations in influencing the quality of health care, and 3) women's health.

·          Ronald Kessler, Ph.D.  He is developing of a large intervention project to assess the adverse effects of psychiatric disorders on workplace performance and to evaluate the impact of aggressive outreach and treatment of these disorders on reversing these effects.

·          Arthur M. Kleinman, M.D., M.A.  Professor Kleinman's research interests include the experience of chronic illness, social suffering, depression, emerging infectious diseases, substance abuse, suicide, political violence, trauma, aging, ethnicity, and disabilities.

·          Howard Koh, M.D., M.P.H.  He is nationally known in the areas of cancer prevention, tobacco control, Asian-American health issues, and skin oncology.

 

·         Bruce E. Landon, M.D., M.B.A. Dr. Landon's primary research interest has been assessing the impact of different characteristics of physicians and health care organizations, ranging from health plans to physician group practices, on the provision of health care services.

·          Peter V. Marsden, Ph.D.  Professor Marsden is a sociologist interested in social networks, complex organizations, and social science methods.

·          Deborah Prothrow-Stith, M.D.  She is considered to be the foremost authority on the subject of violence prevention

·          Joan Y. Reede, M.D., M.P.H., M.S.  Her research interests focus primarily on health policy and minority health including, in particular, minority faculty development; factors influencing minority physician training and career decisions; and leadership in public health.

·          Eric Schneider, M.D., M.Sc.  Dr. Schneider conducts health services research on the quality of health care with projects focused on measurement methods in quality and safety, the impact of public reporting of performance results, and the role of organization, financing, and socioeconomic factors including race and ethnicity on the quality of care.

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