An exhibit on the life and work of health services research pioneer John Eisenberg, MD, is on display outside NLM's History of Medicine Reading Room (Building 38, first floor) through June 30, 2004. Curated by John Rees, Associate Curator of Archives and Modern Manuscripts, it is replete with letters, photographs and awards, and can be viewed weekdays except federal holidays from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM and Saturdays from 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM.

Eisenberg came to Washington and Georgetown University after more than 15 years at the University of Pennsylvania, where he built its acclaimed Health Services Research program while simultaneously becoming the first section chief in general internal medicine.

In 1997, Eisenberg became head of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the government's counterpart to academic HSR. He held this position for five years, until his death from a brain tumor March 10, 2002. Eisenberg combined a unique sense of society and politics with clinical medicine to become a leader in the field of HSR. As a leader of institutions and mentor to scholars, he guided his field of expertise into a powerful force for understanding the economics of health care. AHRQ had suffered mightily during Clinton-era political wrangling, but Eisenberg helped return AHRQ to its traditional role of supplying non-partisan research to our lawmakers.

The John M. Eisenberg Papers are in the History of Medicine Division's Modern Manuscripts Collection. Their acquisition and processing were made possible through the efforts of the History of Health Services Research Project, a joint effort of HMD and NLM's National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR).

Last updated: 16 April 2004
First published: 16 April 2004
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