Seminar Series

2005 - 2006

The Division of Health Policy and Management sponsors two seminar series:

• Health Services Research Seminars (HSR) - Nationally and internationally known leaders in health services research speak on current topics. These seminars are free and open to the public.
• In the Spotlight Seminars (ISL) - (Formerly, Work in Progress Series) Faculty research, guest speakers, and student topics of interest are presented in an informal setting, open to the University community. All ISL seminars are held in Mayo D-330 from 11:30 am -1:00 pm, except as noted. Feel free to bring your lunch.

2005-2006 Schedule

Archives

2005-2006 | 2004-2005 | 2003-2004 | 2002-2003 | 2001-2002 | 2000-2001 | 1999-2000 | 1998-1999

Abstracts for HSR Series

Bernice A. Pescosolido, Ph.D.
Chancellor's Professor of Sociology at Indiana University, Director of the Indiana Consortium for Mental Health Services Research

“One Pathway to the Roadmap: The Role of Social Networks in Integrating the Health Sciences”

Abstract

Over a dozen reports from NIH, the National Academy of Sciences, and particularly the Institute of Medicine, agree: working behind disciplinary walls and creating chasms between natural/physical and social/behavioral sciences has stalled further progress in predicting who gets sick, who seeks treatment, and who recovers. Central to these calls for integration is the recognition that we have to understand the causes and consequences of health and health care "in context." This presentation focuses on the recent similarity in language and imagery in social network perspectives across the sciences, and argues that this provides a useful way to integrate "context" into the bio-medical sciences. Using the Network-Episode Model as one prototype, solutions and remaining challenges are discussed.

Bernice A. Pescosolido is Chancellor’s Professor of Sociology at Indiana University and Director of the Indiana Consortium for Mental Health Services Research. Professor Pescosolido received a B.A. from the University of Rhode Island in 1974 and a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1982. She has focused her research and teaching on social issues in health, illness, and healing. Pescosolido’s research agenda addresses how social networks connect individuals to their communities and to institutional structures, providing the "wires" through which people’s attitudes and actions are influenced.

Top
 

Elliott S. Fisher, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor of Medicine and of Community and Family Medicine, Darmouth Medical School

“Efficiency in Health Care and the Paradox of Plenty”

Abstract

Professor Fisher will discuss two recent research projects that look at efficiency in healthcare. Research from the first study reveals dramatic differences among academic medical centers (AMCs) in the quantity of care provided to their patients. The implications, however, depend upon whether the additional resources provided by some centers lead to better results. Professor Fisher’s research describes the content, quality, and outcomes of care across AMCs that differ by up to 60 percent in the overall intensity of medical services delivered to patients with serious chronic illnesses. Professor Fisher’s second study examines Medicare costs and survival gains for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) during 1986–2002. He found overall gains in post-AMI survival more than justified the increases in costs during this period. Since 1996, however, survival gains have stagnated, while spending has continued to increase.

Further findings on these studies can be found in two Health Affairs articles:

Fisher, E. S., D. E. Wennberg, T. A. Stukel, and D. J. Gottlieb, "Variations in the longitudinal efficiency of academic medical centers," Health Affairs, Vol. Suppl Web Exclusive (2004): VAR19-VAR32.

Skinner JS, Staiger DE, and Fisher ES, “Is Technological Change In Medicine Always Worth It? The Case Of Acute Myocardial Infarction,” Health Affairs, 25 (2006): w34—w47.e.

Dr. Fisher is also a general internist at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in White River Junction, Vermont where he co-directs the VA Outcomes Group, a research and training program for physicians. His research interests lie in three areas. First, he has worked to clarify the limitations of administrative databases and develop methods to overcome them. Second, he has developed approaches to resource allocation based upon the principles of benchmarking, first as a means of addressing inequities in the levels of hospital resources across communities in Oregon and more recently as applied to the U.S. physician supply. Most recently, he has focused on the health implications of the uneven distribution of health care resources. His current research, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, examines the potential adverse consequences of increasing capacity in health care.

Top
 

James Rebitzer, Ph.D.
Carlton Professor of Economics and Chair of the Economics Department, Weatherhead School of Management Case Western Reserve University

“Information Technology and Medical Errors: Evidence from a Randomized Trial”

Abstract

This paper analyses the effect of a decision support tool designed to help physicians detect and correct medical "errors." The data comes from a randomized trial of the technology in a population of commercial HMO patients. The key findings of the study are easily summarized. The new information technology enhances the efficiency of medical services by reducing costs while also improving care quality. Average charges were 6% lower in the study group than in the control group. These savings were the result of reduced in-patient charges (and associated professional charges) for the most costly patients. The rate at which potential errors were resolved was generally higher in the study group than in the control group-suggesting an improvement in care quality. Beyond medical costs and care quality, this study also adds to the growing body of research documenting the ways that information technology can improve the economic efficiency of decisions made by highly trained professionals operating in complex environments.

Professor Rebitzer is the Carlton Professor of Economics and the Chair of the Economics Department at Case’s Weatherhead School of Management. Before coming to Case in 1998, Rebitzer was an assistant and associate professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management (1989-1997); and prior to that was an assistant professor in the Economics Department at the University of Texas at Austin (1985-1998). Rebitzer is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, IZA and the Levy Economics Institute and an Affiliate of the Sloan Industry Centers Project. Professor Rebitzer’s research and teaching focus on organizational economics with a special emphasis on behavioral issues in the economics of human resource systems. Much of his recent research concerns the effect of incentive systems on the cost and quality of health care. Rebitzer has published papers in many academic journals including: The American Economic Review, The Journal of Political Economy, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, The Review of Economics and Statistics, The Journal of Labor Economics, The Journal of Public Economics, and The Journal of Economics, Behavior and Organizations, and The Journal of Economic Literature.

Top
 

Leemore S. Dafny, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Management & Strategy, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

“Do Report Cards Tell Consumers Anything They Don’t Already Know? The Case of Medicare HMOs”

Abstract

The use of government-mandated report cards to diminish uncertainty about the quality of various products and services is widespread. However, report cards will have little effect if they simply confirm consumers’ prior beliefs. Moreover, documented “responses” to report cards may reflect learning about quality that would have occurred in their absence. Using panel data on Medicare HMO market shares between 1994 and 2002, Leemore Dafny and David Dranove (of Northwestern University), examine the relationship between enrollment and quality before and after report cards were mailed to 40 million Medicare beneficiaries in 1999 and 2000. Evidence has been found for both market-based and report-card-induced learning. They estimate the report-card effect on enrollment in the two years following their release to be approximately equal to that of cumulative market learning between 1994 and 2002. The report-card effect is entirely due to beneficiaries’ response to consumer satisfaction scores; other reported quality measures such as the mammography rate did not affect enrollment.

Leemore Dafny is Assistant Professor of Management and Strategy at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Dafny is an applied microeconomist whose research focuses on competition in healthcare markets and the impact of public health insurance on healthcare costs and quality. Recent projects include “How Do Hospitals Respond to Price Changes?”, “Games Hospitals Play: Entry Deterrence in Inpatient Procedure Markets”, and “Estimation and Identification of Merger Effects: An Application to Hospital Mergers”. Dafny is a graduate of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a recipient of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. She is a Faculty Research Fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a Faculty Fellow of the Institute for Policy Research and the Center for the Study of Industrial Organization at Northwestern University.

Top