Children's Health Services Researchers
Meeting
Speaker Biographies
Improving Children's Health
Through Health Services Research was a special 1-day meeting held June 26, 1999, in Chicago. The state of the science in children's health services research
was explored, including public and private funding opportunities, networks for
conducting research, and uses of research in policy and practice. The meeting
was sponsored by the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related
Institutions (NACHRI), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the Agency
for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Packard Foundation, the Association
for Health Services Research (AHSR), the RWJ Foundation and Data Harbor Inc.
provided support.
Welcome and Introduction
W. David Helms, Ph.D.
has led the Alpha Center, a non-partisan, non-profit health policy center since
it was established in 1976. Effective January, 1999, Dr. Helms also became the
Chief Executive Officer of the Association for Health Services Research (AHSR),
a national membership association formed exclusively to promote the field of
health services research and to strengthen the relationship between the users
and producers of research.
For the Alpha Center, Dr. Helms has
directed a wide range of health policy and planning projects for Federal and
State government agencies, State and local health planning agencies, and private
foundations. He serves as program director for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's
(RWJF) State Initiatives in Health Care Reform program. Through the Center's
contract with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and its
User Liaison Program, he conducts workshops and develops research reviews for
senior State and local health officials. He also serves as project director
for the National Leadership Institute on Public Purchasing, funded and supported
by RWJF and the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA).
Prior to his work with the Alpha
Center, Dr. Helms was director for research and program development for a comprehensive
health planning agency. He has served on the Governing Council of the American
Public Health Association and on the board of directors of the American Health
Planning Association, and he is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance.
He received his doctorate in public administration and economics, in 1979, from
the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University.
Lisa Simpson, M.B.,
B.Ch., M.P.H. has served as deputy administrator of the Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality (AHRQ) since September 1996. The Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality is the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) lead
Agency for health services research and health care quality. In the last three
years, she oversaw AHRQ's reorganizations, budget cuts and expansions, and the
Agency's transition from clinical practice guidelines to the promotion of evidence-based
practice and an enhanced focus on quality measurement and improvement.
During 1998, Dr. Simpson oversaw
a major effort to align the Agency's planning, budgeting, and reporting activities
to move the Agency to a more accountable and user-driven research agenda. She
has also been active in national activities to advance quality measurement,
serving on advisor committees of the National Committee for Quality Assurance,
the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations' Council
on Performance Measurement, and the American Medical Association.
As a board-certified pediatrician,
Dr. Simpson also spearheads the Agency's initiatives in promoting children's
health services research. She is an active member of the Department's efforts
to assist States in the implementation of the new Child Health Insurance program
(CHIP). She speaks and writes frequently about the opportunities and challenges
for improving children's health in this country. Dr. Simpson is an adjunct professor
at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. Dr. Simpson currently serves
on the Editorial Board of Maternal and Child Heath Journal and the Editorial
Advisory Board of The Future of Children.
Prior to her services at AHRQ, Dr.
Simpson was a senior policy analyst in the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary
for Health. She was a fellow at the Institute for Health Policy Studies, School
of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco from 1991 to 1993; and
was the Director of Maternal and Child Health for the State of Hawaii from 1988
to 1990, where she oversaw the implementation of numerous innovative community-based
health programs for women and children. She received a doctorate of medicine
(MB., BCh) from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland and earned a master's in public
health from the University of Hawaii.
Barbara Starfield,
M.D., M.P.H. is the University Distinguished Service Professor with appointments
in the Department of Health Policy and Management and Pediatrics at the Johns
Hopkins University Schools of Public Health and Medicine. She is also the director
of the Johns Hopkins University Primary Care Policy Center. Dr. Starfield's
overriding concerns are understanding the impact of health services on health,
especially with regard to the relative contributions of primary care and specialty
care on reducing social inequities in health. Her focus is both on clinical
care and on services to populations as well as the inter-relationships between
the two. She received her BA degree from Swarthmore College, her MD degree from
the State University of New York (Health Sciences Center in Brooklyn), and her
MPH degree from the Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Starfield is a fellow of the
American Academy of Pediatrics and a member of the Institute of Medicine. She
is the recipient of numerous national awards, most recently including the first
Pew Primary Care Research Award (1994), the Distinguished Investigator award
of the Association for Health Services Research (1995) and the American Public
Health Association's Martha May Eliot Award (1995).
Dr. Starfield's 1992 book, Primary
Care, is widely regarded as a seminal contribution to thinking and assessment
of the subject. Her 1998 book, Primary Care: Balancing Health Needs, Services,
and Technology, provides innovative methods to evaluate the attainment and
contributions of primary systems and practitioners, and complements her earlier
book by highlighting the additional areas of equity in health services and health,
and the overlap between clinical medicine and public health. She has also made
contributions in the areas of health status measurement for children and adolescents,
and in case-mix assessment and adjustment.
Carolyn Clancy, M.D.
a clinical researcher and a practicing internist, directs the Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality (AHRQ) Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research.
She is an associate clinical professor at George Washington University's Department
of Health Care Sciences and Georgetown University's Department of Family and
Community Medicine. Dr. Clancy holds a bachelor's of science, magna cum laude,
in math and chemistry from Boston College (1975) and a doctorate of medicine
from the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine (1979).
Dr. Clancy has held other senior
positions at AHRQ since 1990. From 1984 to 1990, she was an assistant professor
of medicine and director of the Medical Clinic at the Medical College of Virginia.
She also taught at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and served
as an attending ER physician at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.
Her health services research priorities include issues such as quality, access,
and the impact of delivery system changes. Her medical specialties include primary
care medicine and women's health. Dr. Clancy has authored and co-authored 5
medical books, published over 40 articles in peer-reviewed medical journals
and presented more than 30 research papers at academic conferences. She currently
chairs the Research Committee of the Society for General Internal Medicine,
where she has held other leadership roles since 1988.
Translating Research into Practice:
Quality Measurement and Improvement
Kevin B. Weiss, MD,
MPH is associate professor and director of the Center for Health Services
Research at the Rush Primary Care Institute, Chicago, IL. Prior to joining the
Rush System for Health, he was associate professor of Health Care Sciences and
Medicine at the George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, DC
and Research Fellow at the Center for Health Policy Research at the George Washington
University. He has previously held positions at the National Center for Health
Statistics, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at the National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and at the National Institutes
of Health (NIH). While at NIAID, his principal activity was the development
and implementation of the National Cooperative Inner City Asthma Study. Dr.
Weiss was Chair of the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program's Task
Force on Cost-Effectiveness, Quality of Care and Financing of Asthma Care sponsored
by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the NIH. He recently
co-chaired the Asthma Collaborative in the Breakthrough Series of the Institute
for Healthcare Improvement. He is also a former Robert Wood Johnson Generalist
Physician Faculty Scholar.
Dr. Weiss is currently engaged in
collaborative epidemiological and health services research projects involving:
primary care oriented information systems development, outcomes measurement
and quality improvement. He is also principal investigator of the Pediatric
Asthma Care Patient Outcomes Research Team (PORT)—a large multi-site randomized
controlled cost-effectiveness study of the national guidelines for the treatment
of asthma in pediatric population, jointly funded by the Agency for Health Care
Policy and Research and NHLBI/NIH.
David Olds, Ph.D.
is professor of pediatrics, psychiatry and preventive medicine at the University
of Colorado Health Sciences Center, where he directs the Prevention Research
Center for Family and Child Health. He has devoted his career to investigating
methods of preventing health and developmental problems in children and parents
from low-income families. His original work, carried out in Elmira, New York,
examined the effects of prenatal and postpartum nurse home visitation on the
outcomes of pregnancy, infant caregiving, and maternal life-course development,
and determined the impact of those services on government spending.
A member of the American Pediatrics
Society, he has received numerous awards for this research, including the Charles
A. Dana Award for Pioneering Achievements in Health, the Lela Rowland Prevention
Award from the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Brook Visiting Professorship
in Epidemiology from the Royal Society of Medicine. He currently is carrying
out an urban replication of the Elmira study in Memphis, Tennessee, a 19 year
follow-up study of the Elmira sample, and another replication of the Elmira
and Memphis studies in the Denver metropolitan area. The Denver trial examines
the unique contributions that paraprofessional and nurse home visitors can make
toward improving the health of mothers and children from low-income families.
Dr. Olds received his BA from Johns Hopkins University and his Ph.D. from Cornell.
Peters D. Willson,
coordinates all National Association of Children's Hospitals (NACH) public policy
activities, including Federal advocacy, State policy services, special projects,
publications, meetings, and services by consultants. He staffs the NACH Board
of Trustees Council on Public Policy, and he is lead contact on staff regarding
Federal graduate medical education policy, pediatric research policy, and CHAMPUS/TRICARE
policy. He produces the bi-weekly Washington Update for member hospitals,
and the quarterly NACH Washington Report for NACHRI's Children's Hospitals
Today.
Building Capacity: Training
What's New, What Needs to Change
Michael Weitzman,
M.D. is currently pediatrician-in-chief at Rochester General Hospital
and professor and associate chairman of pediatrics at the University of Rochester
School of Medicine and Dentistry, where he is also the director of the division
of General Pediatrics. He was formerly director of maternal and child health
for the City of Boston, and director of General Pediatrics at Boston City Hospital
and Boston University School of Medicine. He has conducted research and written
extensively on such diverse issues as childhood lead poisoning, chronic illness,
passive and prenatal exposure to cigarette smoke, breast feeding, excessive
school absences, the academic benefits of the school breakfast program, and
the epidemiology of children's mental health problems, risk-taking behaviors,
school failure, and childhood asthma. He has published over 150 original articles,
chapters, books, and abstracts of scholarly work, and is the co-editor of two
pediatric textbooks.
Dr. Weitzman currently serves on
the Center for Disease Control's Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Advisory
Committee, and the National Advisory Committee of the Robert Wood Johnson Generalist
Physician Faculty Scholars program. He was the 1997 recipient of the Ambulatory
Pediatric Association's Research Award, its most distinguished honor for scholarly
achievement, and the fellowship training program in Academic General Pediatrics,
which he has directed for the past 8 years, was the recipient of the Ambulatory
Pediatric Association's Teaching Award in 1999.
Charles Homer, M.D.,
M.P.H. is the director of the Children's Hospital Clinical Effectiveness
Program, which is located jointly within the Division of General Pediatrics
and the Hospital's Department of Hospital Epidemiology and Quality Improvement.
Trained in epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
he has received both Federal and private foundation support for his work. His
work has included critical assessment of the literature on preventive health
care for children, assessment of the impact of Medicaid captivation programs
on child health care and outcomes, examination of regional variation in hospital
use, primary care, and quality of practice, development and evaluation of strategies
to improve the primary care of inner city children with asthma, development
and evaluation of home based interventions for U.S.-born children of Cambodian
refugees, and development of measures to assess parent perceptions of the quality
of both inpatient and ambulatory care for children.
Dr. Homer is Principal Investigator
on an AHRQ-funded study to develop and implement an automated guideline for
the evaluation and treatment of hyperbilirubinemia in newborns. Other current
research efforts explore the use of quality improvement methods for improving
care in office-based practices, including asthma care and immunizations. He
is also co-investigator on a large federally funded study to develop and test
measures for assessing patient preferences for their health care and health
plans.
Dr. Homer is a consultant to the
American Academy of Pediatrics in the areas of health supervision guidelines,
guideline development, particularly concerning minor head trauma and attention
deficit disorder, and functional outcome measurement. He serves as a member
of its Committee on Quality Improvement, and chairs that committee's Subcommittee
on Guideline Implementation.
Charles E. Irwin,
Jr., M.D. is professor of pediatrics, director of the Division of Adolescent
Medicine, and vice-chairman of Pediatrics at the University of California, San
Francisco School of Medicine. He is a faculty member of the Institute for Health
Policy Studies at UCSF and directs two policy centers focused on health in adolescence
and middle childhood. Dr. Irwin has also directed the Interdisciplinary Adolescent
Health Training Program at UCSF since 1977. His research has focused on risky
behaviors during adolescence, on methods of identifying adolescents who are
prone to initiate health damaging behaviors during the second decade of life,
and, most recently, on preventive interventions for at-risk youth. He is the
author of several publications and the editor of several texts focusing on pediatric
and adolescent health.
Dr. Irwin is the recipient of various
awards, including an outstanding achievement award for research from the Society
for Adolescent Medicine (1985), the National Center for Youth Law's annual award
recognizing his research on high risk youth (1988), the Ambulatory Pediatric
Association's Teaching Award for training physicians in the behavioral sciences
(1990), the Swedish Medical Society's International Lectureship Award (1996),
the American Academy of Pediatrics Adele Hoffman Award for Lifetime Achievement
in Adolescent Medicine (1988), and the Society for Adolescent Medicine's Outstanding
Achievement Award (1999). He also served as the first chair of the American
Board of Pediatrics' Subboard of Adolescent Medicine (1991-1998). He earned
a BS degree in biology from Hobart College, a B.M.S. degree from Dartmouth Medical
School, and an MD degree from the University of California, San Francisco.
John Pestian, Ph.D.
is an assistant professor at the Center for Pediatric Research, a joint program
of Eastern Virginia Medical School and Children's Hospital of the Kings Daughters,
Norfolk, Virginia. He received his doctorate degree in Health Service and Organization
Research from Virginia Commonwealth University's Medical College of Virginia.
His cognitive specialties include medical informatics and clinical outcomes.
Dr. Pestian directs the Clinical
Outcomes research for the Children's Health System, which includes the Children's
Hospital of The King's Daughters, and 20 general and surgical care practices.
Since graduating in 1995, he has been the investigator/co-investigator on research
grants totaling over $2.5 million. He has authored/co-authored articles published
in The New England Journal of Medicine, American Journal of Otolaryngology,
Journal of Family and Community Health, and Hospitals and Health Services
Research.
Dr. Pestian also directs the Health
Informatics research unit of the Center for Pediatric Research, which is dedicated
to developing technological interventions that enhance the health of a community.
He has been the principal investigator in the development of a Web-based school
health information system for Virginia's schools and the development of Web-based
systems for collecting and analyzing information related to newborn hearing,
metabolic and genetic screening. He also holds a patent for using the World
Wide Web to bill for healthcare services.
New Policy Developments
Opportunities and Challenges for
Children's Health Services Research
Patricia MacTaggart
is the director of the quality and performance management group, Center for
Medicaid and State Operations, Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA),
Department of Health and Human Services. She previously provided leadership
in the Office of State Health Reform Demonstration at HCFA. Prior to coming
to HCFA, she was the Director of the Medicaid Program for the State of Minnesota.
Earlier positions within the Minnesota Department of Human Services include
positions as director of Purchasing and Health Care Delivery and as assistant
director of Health Care Management. In addition to State and county government
experience, Ms. MacTaggart has had private experience as the vice-president
of managed care for the Delta Dental Plan of Minnesota. She has also chaired
the Medicaid Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS) Work Group
for the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) and represented Medicaid
on the NCQA HEDIS 3.0 Committee for Performance Measurement.
Linda Bilheimer,
Ph.D. is the Deputy Assistant Director for Health at the Congressional
Budget Office. She directs a team of economists who analyze the budgetary and
policy consequences of legislative proposals for health care, with particular
emphasis on their cost implications for the Federal government and the private
sector. Before joining CBO in 1991, Dr. Bilheimer was a senior researcher at
Mathematical Policy Research Incorporated in Washington, DC. From 1982 to 1987
she was the director of health statistics and epidemiology for the Arkansas
Department of Health. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.
Alan Weil, J.D., M.P.P.
is the director of the Assessing the New Federalism project at the Urban Institute.
This project, the largest in the Institute's 30-year history, is designed to
monitor, describe and assess the effects of changes in Federal and State health,
welfare, and social services programs. The Urban Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan
research organization based in Washington, D.C., with the mission of bringing
accurate data and objective analysis to public policy debates.
Mr. Weil was formerly the executive
director of the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. In
March of 1997, Mr. Weil was named to President Clinton's Advisory Commission
on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry. He also serves
on the National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's
Changes in Health Care Financing and Organization program and the Devolution
and Federalism Technical Advisory Group for the National Health Policy Forum.
Mr. Weil received his bachelor's
degree in economics and political science from the University of California
at Berkeley. He holds a master of public policy degree from the John F. Kennedy
School of Government at Harvard, and a JD from Harvard Law School.
Lois Salisbury, J.D.
is president of Children Now. Children Now acts as a strong and independent
voice for children—in the public policy arena, in the mass media, among
business leaders and in the community. With a staff of over 30 people, Children
Now is a national organization, headquartered in Oakland, with offices in Los
Angeles and New York. As President, she provides central leadership for Children
Now's vision and strategies, oversees program development and implementation,
serves as spokesperson, and sustains a leadership network with others around
the country who share Children Now's commitment to improving the lives of children.
Prior to coming to Children Now,
Ms. Salisbury was for 19 years a public interest lawyer at Public Advocates
where she conducted complex impact and class action litigation concentrating
on civil rights and consumer issues, and initiated coalition building and policy
development emphasizing health care and education reform. She was the founding
chair of Health Access, a State-wide consumer coalition representing over 200
organizations. She has made numerous keynote and media appearances and has published
op-ed pieces, major policy papers, and law review articles.
Ms. Salisbury has served on gubernatorial,
mayoral, and foundation task forces and advisory boards, and recent appointments
include Mayor Riordan's Commission for Healthy Kids, State Superintendent Eastin's
Universal Pre-School Task Force, HBO's Family Channel Advisory Committee, and
the California Health Care Foundation's Medical Commission Advisory Board. She
has also served as national co-chair of the Child and Adolescent Health Measures
Advisory Committee, a project of the Foundation for Accountability (FACCT),
and the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).
Her prior experience includes serving
as a school administrator, counselor and inner city teacher. She received a
J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law, and
a bachelor's degree from Reed College.
Funding Opportunities in Children's
Health Services Research
Shirley Girouard,
Ph.D., R.N. is the vice president of Child Health and Financing at the National
Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions (NACHRI). She is
experienced in child and adult health services, management, and research. She
holds a doctorate in health policy from Brandeis University, a master's in nursing
from Yale University, a master's in medical sociology from the University of
Connecticut, a baccalaureate in sociology from Eastern Connecticut State College
and a nursing diploma from Hartford Hospital School of Nursing. She has held
a variety of positions in health care, including administrator, educator, researcher,
policy analyst and health care provider. In addition, she has served in elected
and appointed positions at local, State, and Federal government levels. Her
publications focus on public policy issues and clinical nursing practice.
Gontran Lamberty,
Dr.P.H. is the chief of the research branch, and director for the Maternal
and Child Health Bureau Research Program. He received his bachelor's degree
from Ohio-Wesleyan University, his master's degree from University of Connecticut,
and his DrPH from the School of Public Health, John Hopkins University.
Denise Dougherty,
Ph.D. is the coordinator of Child Health Activities for AHRQ. As coordinator,
she leads AHRQ's Internal Child Health Advisory Group, contributes to AHRQ's
policy development in children's and adolescents' health issues, and works with
other Federal agencies and relevant external groups on children's and adolescents'
health concerns. She wrote the departmental report to Congress, "Pediatric
Outcomes Research."
Before joining AHRQ in March 1996,
she worked in various roles at the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment.
As a program director, she oversaw studies in the residential technologies for
elderly people and people with disabilities, educational technology, and technologies
in the school-to-work transition. She spent most of her OTA career in OTA's
health program, directing and contributing to reports on issues as diverse as
quality of care, blood policy and technology, Native American health, mental
health, adolescent health, cost-effectiveness of breast cancer screening, the
relationship between health insurance status and health outcomes, and the assumptions
underlying economic forecasts of alternative health reforms. She holds a Ph.D.
in social psychology from Boston University, and spent her pre-Ph.D. years as
a municipal finance analyst on Wall Street.
Building Capacity: Research Networks
Using Networks to Conduct Children's
Health Services Research
James E. Shmerling,
M.B.A. is president of Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center. He has recently
been named Senior Vice President of Ambulatory Services for Methodist/Le Bonheur
Healthcare. Mr. Shmerling came to Le Bonheur in 1991 as the chief operating
officer and senior vice president, and held this position until 1995. Prior
to joining Le Bonheur, he served for 4 years as the associate director of Indiana
University Hospitals and Administrator of the James Whitcomb Riley Hospital
for Children. From 1980-1987, he served in several administrative capacities
at the Children's Hospital of Alabama, including his last position as Associate
Administrator of Operations. Mr. Shmerling has a master's degree in hospital
and health care administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham
and a master's in business administration from Samford University in Birmingham,
Alabama. In addition, he has completed coursework in pursuit of a doctorate
in health administration from the Medical University of South Carolina.
Mr. Shmerling is a fellow in the
American College of Health Care Executives. He currently holds positions on
the boards of the Child Health Corporation of America (CHCA), the National Association
of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions (NACHRI), Southern Poison Center,
Child Health Alliance of the Mid-South (CHAMS), Hospital Wing, In., and the
Le Bonheur Operating Board. Additionally, he recently accepted the invitation
to serve as chairman of the Council on Child Health and Financing with NACHRI.
He also serves on the boards of the YMCA, the Memphis Jewish Home, the Boy Scouts
of America, the Greater Memphis Jewish Federation, and Beth Sholom Synagogue.
Managed Care Research Networks
Andrew Nelson, M.P.H.
is the executive director of research for Health Partners Research Foundation.
He has a B.A. in Social Welfare and M.P.H. in public health administration from the
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mr. Nelson has over 20 years
of administrative leadership and research investigation experience in the health
and human care fields, and is especially strong in the areas of organizational
leadership and the creation of multidisciplinary team approaches to serve a
complexity of health/human and community service needs.
Mr. Nelson has been active in many
professional and industry organizations, where his roles have included developing
research and health care agendas. He has extensive experience in study/project
design, grant writing/administration, informational systems design, program/project
evaluation, organizational administration and governance. He has participated
in shaping national, State and local health care and research agendas. Currently,
he serves as executive director of the HealthPartners Research Foundation which
includes providing leadership and vision for this public domain research organization
with a staff of 85 and with 350 active projects funded by over 7 million dollars
in 1998.
Emalee G. Flaherty,
M.D. is assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University School
of Medicine and the medical director of the protective service team at Children's
Memorial Hospital in Chicago. For over 10 years, she has participated in office
based research projects conducted by both the Pediatric Research in Office Setting
network (PROS)—the AAP-sponsored practice-based research network, and by
the Pediatric Practice Research Group (PPRG). She is a member of the steering
committee of PPRG and she is the Illinois State Coordinator for PROS.
Dr. Flaherty has actively participated
in developing many of the studies carried out by these two networks. She recently
completed her own study with the help of the practitioners in the PPRG network.
This study described the injuries seen in the pediatric office setting and the
practitioner's identification and reporting of child abuse injuries. This project
was funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. She hopes to continue
this research with the help of the practitioners in PROS.
New Policy Developments
Using Data for Policy and Practice
Arthur F. Kohrman,
M.D. is professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Medical School
and associate chair for advocacy at Children's Memorial Hospital and department
of pediatrics at Northwestern University Medical School. Prior to his service
at Northwestern University, Dr. Kohrman was the president and CEO for La Rabida
Children's Hospital and Research Center from 1981 to 1996, and he was the Senior
Scholar at the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University
of Chicago.
Dr. Kohrman received his bachelor's
degree in arts and science from the University of Chicago and his medical degree
from Western Reserve University School of Medicine. In 1967, Dr. Kohrman completed
his NIH post-doctoral research fellowship in metabolic diseases with the department
of pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine and in 1968 he completed
his NIH special post-doctoral fellowship from Stanford University. Dr. Kohrman
is currently a member of the board of directors of the Health and Medicine Policy
Research Group.
Steve A. Freedman,
Ph.D. is the executive director of the Institute for Child Health Policy
of the State University System of Florida and professor of pediatrics, political
science and public health. He has the distinction of being one of a handful
of non-physicians elected to fellowship in the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Prior to his academic career, Dr. Freedman served in senior staff positions
in both Florida's Department of Education and its Department of Health. He and
his colleagues have designed a number of national model programs including:
- A State-wide nurse-based case management
program for chronically ill children.
- An innovative day health care
and developmental facility for medically and technology dependent children.
- A school enrollment-based family
health insurance program that received the Ford Foundation/Harvard-Kennedy
School of Government, 1996 Innovations in American Government Award.
He has testified before Congress
and legislatures on child health financing and delivery systems. He serves as
chair of the Health and Human Services Commission of the Southern Regional Education
Board and served on a committee on comprehensive school health programs of the
National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine.
Jane Holl, M.D., M.P.H.
received all of her undergraduate and medical education at the Free University
in Brussels, Belgium. She completed an internship in New York City and her pediatric
residency at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. She was
a member of the faculty at the Children's Hospital of New Jersey for 5 years
and then moved to the University of Rochester School of Medicine, where she
completed a general academic pediatric fellowship and obtained a master's degree
in public health, before joining the faculty. Her research focuses on evaluating
State-funded health insurance for low-income children and studying the effects
of Medicaid managed care. She moved to the Institute for Health Services Research
and Policy Studies this past January and was named a recipient of the 1999 Robert
Wood Johnson Generalist Physician Faculty Scholars Program. Currently, she is
involved in continuing the studies of Medicaid managed care, developing an initiative
for Medicaid managed care to improve developmental services, and using MEPS
to evaluate the impact of Medicaid managed care, SCHIP, and welfare reform.
Richard H. Sewell,
M.P.H. is executive director of the Chicago Health Policy Council in the
Center for Health Administration Studies at the University of Chicago. Mr. Sewell
is a graduate of Bowling Green State University and he received his master of
public health degree from the University of Oklahoma in health administration.
Mr. Sewell has a long history of
professional involvement in management, health policy formulation, and planning
in the health field. He was president of the Suburban Primary Health Care Council,
manager of the Access to Care program in suburban Cook County, and executive
director of the Suburban Cook County-DuPage County Health Systems Agency. He
is a member of the governing council and the science board of the American Public
Health Association, chairman of the board of directors of the Friend Family
Health Center and a member of various other organizations.
Funding
Grantsmanship and Mock Study Review
Linda Blankenbaker
received a bachelor of arts degree from Western Maryland College in French and
English education. She taught junior high school French and English from 1966-68.
In 1981, Mrs. Blankenbaker returned to the workforce (after making sure her
two children could get to school on time), taking a clerical position at the
US Department of Agriculture. She held a position at the National Institutes
of Health (the former NINCDS) in 1982 and at the National Cancer Institute in
1983. At NCI she worked on the development of the online cancer treatment information
database, PDQ. Following implementation of the database, she served as executive
secretary to the 2 editorial boards charged with responsibility for maintaining
the currency and accuracy of the treatment information in PDQ. She also handled
a variety of administrative and management activities for the NCI's International
Cancer Information Center which produced other scientific online databases and
the Journal of the NCI.
In 1988, Mrs. Blankenbaker transferred
to the Office of Medical Applications of Research (OMAR) in the Office of the
Director, NIH, where, as a program analyst, she coordinated NIH Consensus Development
Conferences. She took a position at AHRQ in 1990, serving as scientific review
administrator for a chartered peer review committee. More recently, Mrs. Blankenbaker
has assumed responsibilities for overseeing the conduct of AHRQ's peer review
activities, as deputy director for the Office of Scientific Affairs and currently
as acting director of the Scientific Review Division, Office of Research Review,
Education, and Policy, AHRQ.
Jose Julio Escarce,
M.D., Ph.D. is senior natural scientist at RAND, where he is co-director
of the Center for Research on Health Care Organization, Economics, and Finance
and director of the RAND/UCLA/Harvard Center for Health Care Financing Policy
Research. Dr. Escarce graduated from Princeton University, earned a master's
degree in physics from Harvard University, and obtained his medical degree from
the University of Pennsylvania. Following completion of his residency in internal
medicine at Stanford University Hospital, he practiced medicine in the National
Health Services Corp for two years. He then returned to Penn to obtain his Ph.D.
in Health Care Systems from the Wharton School.
Dr. Escarce has served on the Health
Services Research Study Section at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
and is currently a member of the National Advisory Council for Health Care Policy,
Research, and Evaluation of the Department of Health and Human Services. He
is Deputy Editor of the journal Medical Care and serves on the editorial boards
of Inquiry and Health Services Research. Dr. Escarce's research interest includes
physician behavior under economic incentives, access to care, and the impact
of managed care on cost and quality.
Anne Marie Gadomski,
M.D., M.P.H. is a board-certified pediatrician with a master's degree in
public health and a post-doctorate in nutrition. She received her MD from the
University of Rochester and completed her pediatric training at Strong Memorial
Hospital in Rochester, New York. She is currently a research scientist and attending
pediatrician at the Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown. She has epidemiological,
health services and clinical research experience in both national and international
settings. Her current research focuses on health services, children's mental
health and domestic violence, and pediatric respiratory disease.
Wrap-up and Next Steps
Neal Halfon, M.D.,
M.P.H. is professor of pediatrics in the School of Medicine and professor
of community health sciences in the School of Public Health at the University
of California, Los Angeles, and is a consultant in the Health Program at RAND.
Dr. Halfon is currently director of the UCLA Center for Healthier Children,
Families and Communities and directs the Child and Family Health Program in
the School of Public Health at UCLA. Dr. Halfon also directs the federally funded
Maternal and Child Health Bureau's National Center for Infancy and Early Childhood
Health Policy Research. His primary research interests include the provision
of developmental service to young children, access to care for poor children,
and delivery of health services to children with special health care needs,
with particular interest in children who have been abused and neglected and
are being cared for by the foster care system. He has published investigations
of immunizations for inner-city children, the health care needs of children
in foster care, trends in chronic illnesses for children, and the delivery of
health care services for children with asthma, as well as investigations of
new models of health service delivery for high-risk children.
Dr. Halfon was recently a co-chair
of the Association for Health Services Research's research agenda setting conference,
Improving the Quality of Health Care for Children. He serves on the Pediatric
Measurement Advisory Panel for the National Committee on Quality Assurance (NCQA)
and the Foundation for Accountability (FACCT). Dr. Halfon is also a member of
the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Committee on Child Health Financing
and the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions'
(NACHRI) Council on Health and Finance.
Dr. Halfon has served on expert panels
for the National Commission on Children, the Maternal and Child Health Bureau's
Bright Futures Project, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Panel
on Child Health Services Research, the Bureau of Health Professions' Panel on
Primary Care, and the Carnegie Commission on Early Childhood. He received an
MD from the University of California, Davis, and an MPH from the University
of California, Berkeley. He completed his pediatric residency at the University
of California, San Diego and the University of California, San Francisco. Dr.
Halfon was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the University of California,
San Francisco and Stanford.
Internet Citation:
Improving Children's
Health Through Health Services Research, Children's Health Services Researchers
Meeting, Speaker Biographies. June 26, 1999. Agency for Healthcare Research
and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/research/spkrbiog.htm