BOSTON (June 27, 2010) – AcademyHealth announced its 2010 award winners today, recognizing leading researchers in different stages of their careers for significant contributions for the fields of health services research and policy.
"These prestigious awards, each independently selected by distinguished leaders from our field, honor new and established leaders whose research advances policy and practice to improve health and health care," said W. David Helms, Ph.D., president and CEO of AcademyHealth.
The following awards will be presented at the 2010 Annual Research Meeting, June 27-29 in Boston:
DISTINGUISHED INVESTIGATOR AWARD
Lisa I. Iezzoni, M.D., M.Sc.
Dr. Iezzoni is professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Mongan Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital. She previously spent 16 years in the Division of General Medicine and Primary Care at Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Dr. Iezzoni has conducted numerous studies for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Institutes of Health, the Medicare agency, and private foundations on various topics, including evaluating methods for predicting costs, clinical outcomes, and substandard quality of care.
The Distinguished Investigator Award recognizes investigators who have made significant and lasting contributions to the field of health services research through scholarship, teaching, advancement of science and methods, and leadership. Notable past recipients include David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Karen Davis, Ph.D., The Commonwealth Fund; Mark V. Pauly, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania; and Uwe Reinhardt, Ph.D., Princeton University.
ALICE S. HERSH NEW INVESTIGATOR AWARD
Aaron S. Kesselheim, M.D., J.D., M.P.H.
Dr. Kesselheim is an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School and a faculty member in the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH). He is board certified in internal medicine, serves as a primary care physician, and attends on the general medicine inpatient service at BWH. His research focuses on the effects of intellectual property laws and regulatory policies on pharmaceutical development, the drug approval process, and the costs, availability, and use of prescription drugs both domestically and in resource-poor settings.
ARTICLE-OF-THE-YEAR AWARD
Deborah N. Peikes, Ph.D.
Dr. Peikes is recognized for her work as lead author on the article, "Effects of Care Coordination on Hospitalization, Quality of Care, and Health Care Expenditures Among Medicare Beneficiaries: 15 Randomized Trials," which appeared in the February 2010 issue of JAMA. The article was co-authored by Arnold Chen, Jennifer Schore and Randall Brown.
Dr. Peikes is a senior researcher at Mathematica Policy Research. She has technical and substantive expertise in studying how to improve the effectiveness of care coordination and disease management for people with chronic illnesses; delivery of primary care through medical homes; and health, employment, and social integration of beneficiaries with severe disabilities.
OUTSTANDING DISSERTATION AWARD
Janet R. Cummings, Ph.D.
Dr. Cummings is recognized for her doctoral dissertation, "Mental Health Counseling Use among Adolescents: An Elaboration of the Role of Contextual Sociodemographic Characteristics," at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Public Health. Dr. Cummings is an assistant professor of health policy and management at the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health. Her primary research interests are in mental health services, geographic variations in health services and outcomes, racial/ethnic disparities in health care, and Medicare.
AcademyHealth represents a broad community of people with an interest in and commitment to using health services research to improve health care. We promote interaction across the health research and policy arenas by bringing together a broad spectrum of players to share their perspectives, learn from each other, and strengthen their working relationships.