I am a surgeon and health policy researcher in the Department of Surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital and in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. I am on the faculty and collaborate with colleagues at the Center for Surgery and Public Health, Ariadne Labs, and the Harvard Global Health Institute.
My clinical interests are in minimally invasive surgery for GERD and other benign gastrosophageal disorders; metabolic and bariatric surgery; and complex abdominal wall reconstruction.
My research focuses on understanding the impact of health policy efforts on achieving value in our healthcare system by reducing spending and improving outcomes. Using national Medicare claims data, my work has examined the relationship between hospital quality and readmissions; patient experience as a measure of quality; and racial and socioeconomic disparities in readmission rates. From 2014-2015, I served as a senior advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) in the Office of Health Policy at the US Department of Health and Human Services. I currently serve as the Vice-Chair of the Council on Graduate Medical Education (COGME) and am actively engaged in advising federal policies on the physician workforce, graduate medical educaiton, and rural/urban disparities in medical care. My recent focus is on achieving value in the Medicare system with projects focused on bundled payments and variations in utilization of post-acute care.
