Research Areas
Assessment of medical technology and medical practices; medical decision making; cost-quality tradeoffs in health care; adoption and diffusion of medical innovation; health economics; health policy
Current Projects
Comprehensive project to assess the effectiveness, efficacy, and cost of alternative management strategies of patients with gall bladder disease. Study to develop new methods to assess quality of care. Methodological advances in economic assessment of health care. Study of diffusion and adoption of surgical innovations. Improvement of cost-effective preventive practices. Assessment of new technologies.
Representative Publications
(with B.S. Bloom, A.M. Fendrick, A.L. Hillman)
"A Reappraisal of Hepatitis B Virus Vaccinations Policy Using Cost-Effectiveness Analysis." Annals of Internal Medicine 118 (1993).
(with A.M. Fendrick)
"Physician Adoption of Medical Innovation." Medical Innovation at the Crossroads: Coverage and Adoption Decisions About Medical Technologies I. Gelijus, ed., Washington, D.C.: National Academic Press, 1994.
(with B.S. Bloom, J.J. Esgree, A.M. Fendrick, A.L. Hillman and J. Shea)
"Hospital Adoption of Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy." Medical Care 32 (1994).
Education
MD, University of Pennsylvania, 1974; AB, University of Rochester, 1970
Recent Consulting
Health Care Financing Administration; Agency for Health Care Policy and Research; Centers for Disease Control; National Institutes of Health; Department of Defense; World Health Organization; Presidential Commission on Social Affairs, Chamber of Deputies, Rome, Italy; National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine; American College of Physicians; Institute of Health Care Evaluation, Texas A&M University; New Jersey Department of Health; Hewlett Packard Corporation; Merck, Sharpe, & Dohme; SmithKline Beecham; Ciba-Geigy; Warner Lambert; Pfizer; Abbott Laboratories; Becton-Dickinson; Schering-Plough, Johnson & Johnson Companies, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, MacNeil Pharmaceuticals, Rhone-Poulenc-Rohrer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Associations of America; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; Association of Academic Medical Centers
Academic Positions Held
Wharton: 1989-present. University of Pennsylvania: 1975-present (Executive Director, Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, 1989-98; Robert D. Eilers Professor of Health Care Management and Economics, 1989-98)
Other Positions
Director, Clinical Efficiency Assessment, American College of Physicians, 1981-83; Chief, Ambulatory Health Care, Philadelphia Veteran's Administration Medical Center, 1977-78
