CHOICES Faculty


	Mark Fendrick is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine in the School of Medicine and an Associate Professor of Health Management and Policy in the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. Since 1996, he has been Co-director of the Consortium for Health Outcomes, Innovation, and Cost Effectiveness Studies (CHOICES). Dr. Fendrick's research focuses on the clinical and economic assessment of medical interventions with special attention to the study of medical innovation. He has performed economic analyses of interventions for several common conditions including: gallstone disease, heartburn and ulcer disease, arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, viral hepatitis, and bronchitis. These analyses are supplemented by research aimed at how to better incorporate outcomes research results into everyday clinical practice. Dr. Fendrick has authored over 100 articles and book chapters and has given several national and international presentations pertaining to outcomes research and economic evaluation of medical interventions. He has collaborated with several government agencies and professional societies and has consulted for numerous companies in the health care industry. Dr. Fendrick currently serves on the Board of Directors of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) and serves on the editorial board of 4 peer-reviewed publications
	Steven Katz is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Internal Medicine and Health Management and Policy at the University of Michigan. He received his medical degree at the University of California, San Francisco and completed medical residency in primary care internal medicine at UCLA. Dr. Katz received formal training in health services research as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the University of Washington, where he received his M.P.H. He was a Robert Wood Johnson Generalist Faculty Scholar in the Department of Medicine (1995-2000). He received the Jerome W. Conn Award for Excellence in Research from the Department of Medicine in 1997. He has published widely on the behavioral and structural determinants of the utilization and cost of medical care services in the United States and Canada.
	Seema Sonnad is an Assistant Professor of Surgery. She holds a BS in Biology and an MS in Statistics from Stanford University and a PhD in health services and policy analysis from UC Berkeley. Prior to completing her PhD, Dr. Sonnad co-founded a medical diagnostics start-up company and worked in business development for the Stanford University Hospital. Areas of teaching include cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analysis, decision analysis, and meta-analysis. Dr. Sonnad's research focuses on technology assessment of surgical and diagnostic technologies and the use of guidelines in health care. Her research has included clinical problems in radiology, cardiology, surgery, infectious disease and women's health.

	Acham Gebremariam holds an MS in Biostatistics from the University of Michigan and an MS in Statistics from the University of Arkansas. Prior to completing his master's degrees, he worked at Gondar College of Medical Sciences in Ethiopia as an assistant lecturer. He also holds a BS in Statistics from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. Areas of interest include applied multivariate analysis, design and analysis of clinical experiments, and survey data analysis. He has performed statistical analysis for studies of pharmaceutical cost growth, comparative diagnostic-imaging, new methods and interventions in surgery and cardiology. He has also provided methods support for grant proposals in radiation oncology, basic and diagnostic radiology.
	Cheryl Moyer has BS in journalism and an MPH in Health Behavior and Health Education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Since joining CHOICES in 1997, Ms. Moyer has taken the lead in quality of life (QOL) research. Her QOL research has included assessment of QOL among chronic hepatitis C patients, terminal cancer patients and their caregivers, patients with upper GI disease, and patients with obstructive sleep apnea. She was recently awarded the 2000 International Society for Quality of Life Research's Young Investigartor Award for a presentation on the role of optimism/pessimism in QOL. Ms. Moyer also provides questionnaire design expertise and survey research support, including assisting researchers in the medical center in developing and implementing surveys assessing such topics as: cesarean section guideline use by OBGYNs in Michigan; primary care management of chronic, non-cancer pain; attitudes, beliefs and practice patterns among physicians treating obstructive sleep apnea; and patients' expectations regarding the role of surgical residents in their care. In addition, Ms. Moyer is currently project manager on an Intel-funded study of patient-provider e-mail and web communication, and she is managing the CHOICES component of a multidisciplinary study of the impact of a tailored colon cancer screening education website on intentions to obtain colon cancer screening among primary care patients.
	Jeff Fisher graduated in 2000 with a BS in Biopsychology and Cognitive Science from the University of Michigan, where he continues to pursue graduate studies in Epidemiology at the School of Public Health. Jeff began his experience at CHOICES as an undergraduate student employee working on a MCORRP Heart Care Program project. Prior to joining CHOICES as a full-time staff member in September 2000, he undertook a field study on alcoholism during a summer study abroad in the Dominican Republic as well as completed a molecular neurobiology NSF student fellowship. Mr. Fisher's current research includes coordinating an investigation of the health outcomes of different types of neck dissections for the removal of lymph nodes in patients with head and neck cancer at the University of Michigan Medical Center's Otolaryngology Clinic.
	Karen Dobias received her MPH in international health and epidemiology from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, where she worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, developing surveys for the Public Health Practice Program Office. Her graduate thesis involved secondary analysis of a CDC survey assessing childhood malnutrition in Somalia, and previous study experience includes working on Emory University's Women Physicians' Health Study and the University of Michigan's Family Heart Project. Before coming to CHOICES in June 1999, Ms. Dobias was working on an NIH-funded study to look at the association between pancreatic cancer and prior use of pesticides. Since joining CHOICES, she has been involved in survey development, project coordination, and data collection concerning patient satisfaction and quality of life issues among cancer patients. In addition, she has provided assistance with the coordination of an evaluation of patient-physician communication via e-mail and the internet.
	Laura Pryce brings several years of office management experience to CHOICES. Her many roles include overseeing financial operations, managing facilities, supervising student employees and developing and maintaining effective communication within the research staff. Ms. Pryce also acts as liaison to the University, ensuring that all day-to-day operations at CHOICES function smoothly.
	Mohammed Kabeto holds an MS in Biostatistics from the University of Michigan School of Public Health and a BS degree in Mathematics from the University of District of Columbia. Before joining CHOICES in January 1999, he worked as a research assistant for the Sampling Methodology Program in the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. Areas of interest include sampling methods, survival, longitudinal and categorical data analyses. His current works are focused on measuring indirect costs of dementia care and determining the effects of dementia moving to a nursing home using Asset and Health Dynamics among the Oldest Old (AHEAD) cohort of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS).
	Paul Abrahamse holds an MA in economics from Duke University. Before joining CHOICES in April, 1998, he worked at the Center for Clinical Health Policy Research at Duke University. He also currently holds an appointment in the Office of Clinical Affairs. Mr. Abrahamse's research interests include cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analysis, as well as decision analysis. His past work has included measuring and analyzing the costs and cost-effectiveness of treatments for stroke, kidney stones, and metastatic prostate cancer.

	CHOICES University of Michigan 3A00 North Ingalls Building Ann Arbor MI 48109-0409 Phone: 734-936-INFO Fax: 734-763-1485 choices@umich.edu