Daniel C. Tosteson Professor of Health Care Policy (Statistics) Alan M. Zaslavsky, PhD, has been named Statistical Editor of JAMA Health Forum.

Launched in January 2020, JAMA Health Forum is an online publication that hosts health policy commentaries and news including insights from a wide range of health policy experts and original research focused on health policy, health care systems, and public health. Topics covered include the COVID-19 pandemic, fiscal solvency of Medicare, and health policy during the US presidential election campaign. The forum publishes weekly summaries of reports from government and nongovernmental agencies, foundations, and policy-focused organizations. 

“Looking back on a tumultuous year that included a devastating global pandemic, a contentious US presidential election, and a renewed struggle for racial justice, we are heartened by the response of authors and readers to JAMA Health Forum,” says former professor of health care policy and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School John Z. Ayanian, MD, MPP, and Melinda B. Buntin, PhD, the editors of JAMA Health Forum, “We are also hopeful about the role the journal will play in the future, as we seek to bring new ideas, evidence, and expertise to bear on critical health policy challenges.”

Zaslavsky’s methodological research interests include surveys, census methodology, microsimulation models, missing data, hierarchical modeling, small-area estimation, and applied Bayesian methodology. His health services research focuses primarily on developing methodology for quality measurement of health plans and providers and understanding the implications of these quality measurements.

Zaslavsky is a fellow of the American Statistical Association, an elected member of the International Statistical Institute, and a national associate of the National Academy of Sciences. He has served on numerous panels on decennial census methodology, small-area estimation, measurement of race for health and health services research, and healthcare quality reporting for the Institute of Medicine and the Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) of the National Academy of Sciences, on which he has also served.