Associate Professor of Health Care Policy and Medicine, Zirui Song, MD, PhD, was recently recognized by the Harvard Office of Scholarly Engagement for his mentorship of 2023 HMS graduate Shivani Shah. Shah graduated from the MD/MBA program, a joint degree program with a mission to develop physician leaders, skilled in both medicine and management.
Mentors play a crucial role in successful career development in clinical medicine, research, teaching, and administration. With this recognition, Song adds to his outstanding track record of mentorship; he was also the recipient of the 2022 Young Mentor Award at Harvard Medical School.
Song mentored Shah on her scholarly project, Examining the Promise of Price Transparency, part of which was published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. The study investigated price transparency in health care as an approach to control spending and empower consumers. Their results demonstrated the crucial need for price data standardization to support the success of recent CMS policy, as several previous price transparency tools have had limited impact on consumer decisions. This study, led by Shah, argued that a centralized platform or a consistent form for hospitals to use, in addition to providing information in different languages for individuals with limited English proficiency, could facilitate consumer choice.
Song’s research focuses on health care spending and the effects of financial incentives and policy interventions on health and economic outcomes. This includes evaluations of payment reform, Medicare Advantage financing, employer efforts to control spending, and private equity acquisitions of hospitals and physicians.
Song has received several Certificates of Distinction in Teaching from Harvard University and tutorial teaching awards from HMS. Along with teaching, he advises postdoctoral fellows, Ph.D. students, and medical trainees. In addition to his work at HCP, Song is director of the Health Policy concentration in the MGH Internal Medicine Residency Program and co-director of the Essentials of the Profession–Health Policy course for first-year Harvard medical and dental students. Song has also co-led HMS Executive Education courses for employers and global health care leaders, as well as the Mass General Brigham Health Policy Course for residents and fellows.