|
Alan B. Cohen, Sc.D.
Executive Director, HPI, and Director, HPRP
Dr. Cohen is Professor of Health Policy and Management at the BU Schools of Management and Public Health. He also directs the national program office of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholars in Health Policy Research Program. Dr. Cohen has more than 30 years of experience in health policy, health services research, and program evaluation. His current research interests include evaluation of quality improvement initiatives, policies regarding medical technology evaluation and regulation, health policy and cost containment, and comparative health care systems. Together with colleagues from the BU Schools of Management and Public Health, he is a co-investigator in the evaluation of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Pursuing Perfection Program (a major quality improvement initiative). He also is co-principal investigator for three Commonwealth Fund-supported studies: a survey to assess the current state and impact of quality improvement activities in U.S. hospitals; an analysis of health information technology and quality improvement; and a study of quality, efficiency and patient experience in hospitals. He also is co-director of a study to design an alternative health technology assessment system for Massachusetts; a co-principal investigator of a RWJF-funded environmental scan of QI training; and BU team leader for an evaluation of language access services in California public hospitals (under a subcontract to HRET’s California Endowment-supported project).
Dr. Cohen came to HPI in 2003, after serving for nine years as Program Director of the School of Management’s Health Care MBA Program, where he taught courses in American health policy, technology management, and comparative health care systems. Prior to joining Boston University, he was Research Professor and University Lecturer in the Institute for Health Policy of the Florence Heller Graduate School at Brandeis University, where his research focused on assessing the feasibility of setting national health care expenditure limits. Before that, he served as Vice President for Evaluation, Research, and Statistics at The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, where he directed staff operations overseeing the design of national program evaluations and the design of RWJF surveys, including the Access to Care Survey, the Survey of Young Physicians (with the AMA), and the Survey of Business Leaders’ Views on Health Care. He also had management responsibility for programs in the areas of health care financing, state health policy, quality of care, and medical malpractice reform. Previously, he was Associate Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Hospital Finance and Management, and Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management in the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. His earlier work as a senior analyst for Urban Systems Research & Engineering, Inc., in Cambridge, MA, involved evaluation studies of federal and state health programs in the areas of health statistics, health planning, Certificate of Need regulation, and health professions training.
Dr. Cohen currently serves on the editorial board of Inquiry, and served for eight years on the editorial board of Health Affairs. He is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance, and a Fellow of AcademyHealth. He is the principal author of Technology in American Health Care: Policy Directions for Effective Evaluation and Management (University of Michigan Press, 2004). He received his B.A. in psychology from the University of Rochester, and his M.S. and Sc.D. in health policy and management from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Joseph D. Restuccia, Dr.P.H.
Dr. Restuccia is Professor of Health Care and Operations Management at the BU School of Management, and Professor of Health Services at the BU School of Public Health. His research spans more than 30 years and has focused on issues related to health care quality and productivity, including studies involving development and application of hospital and health system performance measures, development and application of patient satisfaction measurement, evaluation of quality management programs, and evaluation of interventions intended to improve effectiveness of health care delivery. Professor Restuccia is co-developer of the Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol (AEP), a decision-making method to assess the necessity of hospital admissions and days of care, that is widely used throughout the world. He recently served as an advisor to the Ministry of Health in Lombardy, Italy on a project to improve the quality and efficiency of health care delivery and on the development of a new school of health care management. He is a co-investigator in the evaluation of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Pursuing Perfection Program; co-principal investigator for three Commonwealth Fund-supported projects (the survey of the current state and impact of hospital quality improvement activities; analysis of HIT and QI, and study of hospital quality, efficiency and patient experience); and is a co-investigator on the HRET-led evaluation of language access services in California public hospitals, supported by the California Endowment. He received his B.A. in political science from Tufts University and his M.P.H. and Dr.P.H. in social and administrative health sciences from the University of California at Berkeley.
Michael Shwartz, Ph.D.
Dr. Shwartz is the Richard D. Cohen Professor of Operations and Technology Management at the BU School of Management. He has been active in health services research and program evaluation for more than 30 years. His early activities focused on the development and use of mathematical models of disease processes to analyze the cost-effectiveness of screening programs, including breast cancer screening and the use of bitewing radiographs to detect dental caries. His more recent research has focused on issues related to health care costs, payment, utilization, appropriateness and quality of care. He has been involved in analyzing case mix and costs by major payers, by teaching hospital status and at public hospitals, and has an ongoing interest in practice pattern variations and provider profiling. Recently completed projects include an analysis of the effect of different approaches for adjusting for patient severity on the interpretation of hospital and patient outcomes; an analysis of the relationship between small area variations in Medicare hospitalization rates and the appropriateness of hospitalizations; and an analysis of the extent to which “more disease” accounts for small area variations in hospitalization rates. Underlying much of this work is the problem of risk adjustment, an area of long-term interest. Professor Shwartz regularly conducts a day-long workshop on risk adjustment at the AcademyHealth annual meeting. Over the last few years, he has been a member of the research team evaluating the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Pursuing Perfection Program, and is a co-investigator in two Commonwealth Fund-supported projects (the hospital quality improvement survey and the study of hospital quality, efficiency and patient experience). He currently is a senior researcher at the Center for Organization, Leadership and Management Research within the Veterans Administration, and also is a Deputy Editor of Medical Care. He received his B.A. in economics from Johns Hopkins University, his M.B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, and his Ph.D. in urban and regional planning from the University of Michigan.
Sally K. Holmes, M.B.A.
Ms. Holmes is a Senior Fellow of the HPRP and a Senior Research Associate at the BU School of Public Health, with more than 25 years of experience in program evaluation, survey research, and qualitative research. Prior to joining the HPRP, she was involved in launching and managing the market research function for Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, and was an independent consultant specializing in market research, strategic planning, and program evaluation for a variety of healthcare and other clients. She has lectured extensively on healthcare and research topics, including patient satisfaction measurement, customer loyalty, branding, positioning and advertising, and qualitative research techniques. She currently is a co-investigator in three projects (the evaluation of RWJF’s Pursuing Perfection Program, the Commonwealth Fund-supported hospital quality improvement survey, and the CF-supported hospital quality, efficiency and patient experience study), and is co-principal investigator for the RWJF-funded environmental scan of quality improvement training in healthcare. Ms. Holmes received her M.B.A. from the Simmons Graduate School of Management.
Eileen M. Connor, M.A., M.H.S.A.
Ms. Connor is Special Advisor to the HPRP Director. From 1993-2006, she served as Deputy Program Director for the RWJ Scholars in Health Policy Research Program. Prior to that, she spent three years with The Health Institute at New England Medical Center Hospitals, where she was involved in strategic planning and project design for the International Resource Center for Health Care Assessment. From 1984-1990, she functioned as chief of staff and manager of the Corporate Associates Program at the Boston University HPI. Ms. Connor also has positions at the Institute of Medicine, the National Capital Medical Foundation, and the United Mineworkers of America Health & Retirement Funds. She holds a master's degree in health services administration from The University of Michigan, School of Public Health, and a M.A. in sociology from Boston University. Her background and experience has been concentrated in the areas of organizational and long-range planning for institutions involved in health care policy and research.
|
|
