Arnold Epstein, MD

Arnold M. Epstein, MD, MA, is chairman of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health where he is the John H. Foster Professor; he is also chief of the Section on Health Services and Policy Research in the Department of Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Epstein’s research interests focus on quality of care and access to care for disadvantaged populations. Recently his efforts have focused on racial and ethnic disparities in care, public reporting of quality performance data and incentives for quality improvement, and Medicaid policies. He has published more than 150 articles on these and other topics. His book, Falling Through the Safety Net, Insurance Status and Access to Health Care, won the Kulp Wright Award by the American Risk and Insurance Association in 1994 for the best new book on life and health insurance.

During 1993-1994, Dr. Epstein worked in the White House where he had staff responsibility for policy issues related to the health care delivery system, especially quality management. He was vice chair of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Developing a National Report on Health Care Quality, and co-chair of the Performance Measurement Coordinating Committee of the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO), the National Committee on Quality Assurance and the American Medical Association. He has served as chairman of the board of AcademyHealth and remains on its board now. He serves on the JCAHO’s Advisory Council on Performance Measurement. He has served on several editorial boards including Health Services Research and the Annals of Internal Medicine. He has been elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the American Association of Professors. He is currently associate editor for health policy at the New England Journal of Medicine and a member of the Institute of Medicine.