Directors
Rodney A. Hayward, M.D.Director
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
Rodney A. Hayward, M.D., is the Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at the University of Michigan and the Ann Arbor VA Healthcare System, where he is also the co-director of the VA Ann Arbor HSR&D Center of Excellence and a Professor of Public Health and Internal Medicine. He received his training in epidemiology, biostatistics and health economics as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at UCLA and at the RAND Corporation, Santa Monica. His current and past work includes studies examining: measurement of quality, costs and health status; environmental and educational factors affecting physician practice patterns; and, statistical and epidemiological nuances in the interpretation of clinical trials and in the development of clinical practice guidelines. An overarching theme of his work focuses on encouraging improvements in healthcare quality and efficiency through more sophisticated performance measures and market incentives.
Peter A. Ubel, M.D.
Co-Director
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
Peter A. Ubel, M.D., is the George C. Dock Collegiate Professor of Medicine, a Professor of Medicine and Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan, a primary care physician at the Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Co-Director of the Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars program and the Director of the Center for Behavioral and Decision Sciences in Medicine. His research explores controversial issues about the role of values and preferences in health care decision making, from decisions at the bedside to policy decisions. He uses the tools of decision psychology and behavioral economics to explore topics like informed consent, shared decision making and health care rationing. Dr. Ubel has won many research awards, including a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Clinton in 2000. He has written over 100 scientific articles, and his research has been widely reported on in the popular media. He is author of Pricing Life: Why it is time for health care rationing (MIT Press, 2000), You’re stronger than you think: Tapping into the secrets of emotionally resilient people (McGraw-Hill, 2006) and Free Market Madness: Why Human Nature is at Odds with Economics--and Why It matters (Harvard Business Press, 2009). Please view his website at: http://www.peterubel.com/.
Michele Heisler, M.D., M.P.H.
Co-Director
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
Michele Heisler, M.D., M.P.H., is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Health Behavior and Health Education and a Research Scientist at the VA Health Services Research & Development (HSR&D) Center of Excellence. Dr. Heisler’s research interests focus on patient, clinician, and health system factors that influence patients’ chronic disease self-management, including medications adherence. She has particular expertise in developing and evaluating health system and behavioral interventions to enhance self-management support for patients with chronic diseases. She currently is leading three federally funded multi-site interventions: an NHLBI-funded intervention testing a self-management intervention mobilizing peer support among patients with heart failure; a VA-funded randomized controlled trial testing a similar intervention among diabetes patients; and an NIH and VA-funded intervention to improve patient adherence to and provider intensification of blood pressure medications among diabetes patients with poorly controlled blood pressure. She is also a co-investigator on a CDC- and NIDDK-funded REACH-Detroit multi-faceted diabetes intervention, which includes the development and evaluation of community health worker (CHW) and peer support programs to assist Latino and African American adults with diabetes living in inner-city Detroit.
Matthew M. Davis, M.D., M.A.P.P.
Co-Director
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
Matthew M. Davis, M.D., M.A.P.P., is Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School and Associate Professor of Public Policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan. Dr. Davis is also the Director of the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health. Dr. Davis's research interests include the financing and delivery of preventive services (particularly vaccines) for children and families, insurance coverage for children and adults, and health care reform efforts in the United States.
Core Faculty
HwaJung Choi, Ph.D.
Core Faculty
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
HwaJung Choi, Ph.D., is Research Analyst, RWJ Clinical Scholars Program, the University of Michigan, where she earned her doctorate in economics. Her dissertation assessed inter-relationships among health, family resources and labor outcomes, and her research interests include informal resources, such as spatial availability of family and social support, for those with chronic illness. She is also interested in disparities in health-care utilization and subsequent health outcomes among different socio- economic and ethnic/racial groups. She has expertise in longitudinal data and spatial data analysis. Along with conducting research, she provides biostatistical and methodological training and technical assistance to UM's RWJ Scholars.
Kevin Chung, M.D., M.S.
Core Faculty
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
Kevin C. Chung, M.D., M.S., is a Professor of Surgery and an Assistant Dean for Faculty Affairs (instructional track) for the Medical School. Dr. Chung received his medical degree from Emory University School of Medicine and completed his residency in general surgery at the University of Texas, San Antonio. He then entered a plastic surgery fellowship at the University of Michigan, and a hand surgery fellowship at the Curtis National Hand Center. He was recruited to the University of Michigan to coordinate the hand surgery program in the Department of Surgery. During this time, he received additional training as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar and received a master’s degree in Research Design and Statistical Analysis from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Currently, Dr. Chung provides care as part of the Hand Program, the Pediatric Brachial Plexus Program and the Plastic Surgery Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Program. He has served as a council member of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand, and is now a director for the American Board of Plastic Surgery and as a board member for the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. He has published over 200 manuscripts in national journals and has authored 7 textbooks. He is a National Institutes of Health funded researcher who is the principal investigator for an R01 grant for a multicenter clinical study on the rheumatoid hand. He has also received a K24 Midcareer Investigator Grant in Patient-Oriented Research and a R21 Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Award from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Chung is a Deputy Editor for the Journal of Hand Surgery and is the Section Editor of Outcomes Research for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
Raymond De Vries, Ph.D.
Core Faculty
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
Raymond De Vries, Ph.D., (Sociology) is Professor in the Bioethics Program, the Department of Medical Education, the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the Department of Sociology (adjunct). He is the author of A Pleasing Birth: Midwifery and Maternity Care in the Netherlands (Temple University Press, 2005), and co-editor of The View from Here: Bioethics and the Social Sciences (Blackwell, 2007) and The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Methods in Health Research (Sage, 2010). He is writing an NIH-funded (critical) social history of bioethics, and is studying: the regulation of science; international research ethics; the difficulties of informed consent; bioethics and the problem of suffering; and the social, ethical, and policy issues associated with non-medically indicated surgical birth. Learn more at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rdevries/Welcome.html.
Sonya DeMonner, M.P.H.
Core Faculty
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
Sonya DeMonner, M.P.H., is a Research Associate, RWJ Clinical Scholars Program and VA Center for Practice Management and Outcomes Research. She received her training in Health Behavior and Health Education from the Univeristy of Michigan School of Public Health. She has provided data management and technical assistance to UM's RWJ Clinical Scholars for the past 10 years. Prior to that she was a Project Manager for a large multi-site quality indicator study at the VA HSRD. She provides scholars with support through all phases of their training including survey development, statistical analysis, database design, data collection and management, programming, and reference management. She is currently developing expertise in qualitative methods and analyses.
Angela Fagerlin, Ph.D.
Core Faculty
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
Angela Fagerlin, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Medicine and a Research Health Science Specialist at the VA Health Services Research & Development (HSR&D) Center of Excellence. Her training is in cognitive psychology and her research focus is testing methods for communicating the risks and benefits of treatment to patients (e.g., in decision aids). She has developed and tested decision aids for prostate cancer and breast cancer prevention. Each of these studies has tested whether different design features of the decision aids influence the decision making process. She is also examining how decision aids affect patient-physician communication. Her other research interests include studying cognitive biases involved in medical decision making and the use of living wills at the end of life.
A. Mark Fendrick, M.D.
Core Faculty
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
A. Mark Fendrick, M.D., is a Professor of Internal Medicine in the School of Medicine and a Professor of Health Management and Policy in the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. Dr. Fendrick received a bachelor’s degree in economics and chemistry from University of Pennsylvania and his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Fendrick completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Pennsylvania where he was a fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program. He currently directs the Health Services Research Core Laboratory and is Co-director of the Center for Value-Based Insurance Design at the University of Michigan. Dr. Fendrick's research focuses on the clinical and economic assessment of medical interventions with special attention to how technological innovation influences clinical practice and impacts health care systems. He has authored over 200 articles and book chapters and lectures frequently on the health and cost implications of medical interventions to diverse audiences around the world. Dr. Fendrick remains clinically active in the practice of general internal medicine. He is the Co-editor in chief of the American Journal of Managed Care and is an editorial board member for 3 additional peer-reviewed publications. His perspective and understanding of clinical and economic issues have fostered collaborations with numerous government agencies, health plans, professional societies, and health care companies. He serves on the Medicare Coverage Advisory Committee. Dr. Fendrick has served on the Board of Directors of the International Society for Technology Assessment in Health Care (ISTAHC) and the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR).
Jane Forman, Sc.D., M.H.S.
Core Faculty
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
Jane Forman, Sc.D., M.H.S., is a Research Scientist at the VA Center for Practice Management and Outcomes Research in Ann Arbor. She earned her doctorate from the Program in Law, Ethics, and Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. At the VA, she collaborates with investigators in the design, data collection, and analysis phases of mixed methods and qualitative studies, with an emphasis on understanding health care delivery systems, translating health services research into practice, and nurse-physician communication.
Gary L. Freed, M.D., M.P.H.
Core Faculty
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
Gary L. Freed, M.D., M.P.H., is the Percy and Mary Murphy Professor of Pediatrics in the School of Medicine and Professor of Health Management and Policy in the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. He is Director of the Division of General Pediatrics and Director of the Children’s Health Evaluation and Research (CHEAR) Unit. Dr. Freed has over 18 years of experience in children’s health services research and has been the principal investigator of numerous federal, state and foundation-funded grants. He has published over 120 peer-reviewed articles on child health policy and health economics, physician behavior and interspecialty variation in the provision of preventive services to children. Dr. Freed received his bachelor’s degree from The University of Texas at Austin, his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and his master of public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). Dr. Freed was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar as well as a Preventive Medicine Fellow at UNC-CH. He is the immediate past President of the Society for Pediatric Research, the largest research society in the field of child health. Dr. Freed also serves on several national committees. He is the immediate past Chair of the Department of Health and Human Services National Vaccine Advisory Committee. He is a frequent consultant to state and federal agencies as well as the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and the World Health Organization. He is a member of the American Board of Pediatrics and a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Susan D. Goold, M.D., M.H.S.A., M.A.
Core Faculty
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
Susan D. Goold, M.D., M.H.S.A., M.A., Professor of Internal Medicine, directs the Bioethics Program. She earned her medical degree at the University of Michigan in 1987, (GO BLUE) then completed a residency in internal medicine at the University of Pittsburgh in 1990 and a general medicine – health services research fellowship at the University of Michigan Medical School. The other letters stand for a master’s in health policy from University of Michigan in 1992 and a master’s in philosophy at Michigan State University in 1994. Dr. Goold’s research focuses on the allocation of scarce health care resources, especially the priorities of patients and citizens, public health ethics and “anything having to with money and medicine.” The CHAT (Choosing Healthplans All Together) simulation exercise, which she designed with Marion Danis, has been used by researchers, policy makers, educators and others in over twenty states and several countries. “We’re especially gratified that CHAT has been valuable to states like Oklahoma and communities like Galveston to inform basic or essential benefit packages,” says Dr. Goold. Dr. Goold serves on several editorial boards and on the AMA Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs. She’s looking forward to a “stay” as a Brocher Foundation fellow next summer in Geneva, where she plans to collaborate with Swiss and German researchers and the WHO Ethics unit.
Timothy P. Hofer, M.D., M.Sc.Core Faculty
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
Timothy P. Hofer, M.D., M.Sc., is currently a Professor of Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School and the Director of the Measurement and Analysis Core at the VA Center for Practice Management and Outcomes Research in Ann Arbor. Dr. Hofer works on measuring and improving quality of care in the complex patient. He is interested in the methodological and practical issues in measuring and profiling quality of care and how the ability to measure quality may affect popular policy initiatives to identify and reduce medical errors or set up pay for performance systems. His projects have focused on the adequacy of risk adjustment, social and economic factors predicting utilization, as well as the patient, provider and organizational influences on performance measurement and indicators. He is a core faculty member in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars program at the University of Michigan and spends a significant amount of time on research mentoring and teaching research trainees.
Jill R. Horwitz, M.P.P., J.D., Ph.D
Core Faculty
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
Professor Jill R. Horwitz teaches health law, nonprofit law, and torts. Her empirical research on hospital ownership and medical service provision has won several awards. Horwitz, the Louis and Myrtle Moskowitz Research Professor of Business and Law, also is a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. She graduated from Northwestern University with an honors B.A. in history and Harvard University with an M.P.P., J.D., magna cum laude, and Ph.D. in health policy. Following law school, she served as a law clerk for Judge Norman Stahl of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. As a doctoral student, Horwitz held graduate fellowships at the Harvard Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations and the Harvard Center for Ethics and the Professions. Horwitz has been a post-doctoral fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, public affairs director for the Planned Parenthood Association of San Mateo County, and a teaching fellow in history at Phillips Academy. She is a member of the bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She has been a visiting professor at the University of Victoria (Faculty of Law, School of Public Administration, and Department of Economics) in British Columbia.
Joel Howell, M.D., Ph.D.
Senior Associate Director
Core Faculty
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
Joel Howell, M.D., Ph.D., was a Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania 1982-1984. He served as co-director and director of the University of Michigan Program from its inception until 2007. He is now the Victor Vaughan Professor of the History of Medicine, Senior Associate Director of the Michigan CSP, and Professor Internal Medicine, History, and Health Management and Policy. His primary research interest is in the history and sociology of medical practice. He has written widely in both the medical and historical literature about the history of medical technology, of hospitals, of ethics, and of human experimentation.
Theodore J. Iwashyna, M.D., Ph.D.
Core Faculty
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
Theodore J. Iwashyna, M.D., Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care here at the U- M. His background includes a Ph.D. in Public Policy from the University of Chicago, and internal medicine residency and pulmonary and critical care fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Iwashyna’s primary research is in the organization and outcomes of critical care. He is currently engaged in an NIH-sponsored study examining the network structure of interactions between hospitals. Hospitals vary substantially in the quality of the critical care they provide, and the interhospital transfer of critically ill patients is common. Now he is asking: Can the current informal transfer system be used to improve outcomes for patients at hospitals with less critical care technology, capacity, and experience? What are the relative advantages of regionalization or decentralized incentives to optimize the care of patients using existing resources? Methodologically, this work combines the traditional tools of health services research (including analysis of administrative databases and multi-level modeling) with emerging techniques in network analysis and agent-based modeling. More information about his research can be found at: http://sitemaker.umich.edu/iwashyna.lab/home.
Eve A. Kerr, M.D., M.P.H.
Core Faculty
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
Eve A. Kerr, M.D., M.P.H., is a Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan, Director of the Center for Clinical Management Research, a VA Health Services Research and Development Center of Excellence, and Research Director of the Diabetes Quality Enhancement Research Initiative. Dr. Kerr received her medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco and completed her internship and residency in internal medicine at University of California, Los Angeles. She subsequently completed the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar’s Program and received a Masters of Public Health from UCLA. In 1996, she joined the faculty of the University of Michigan Department of Internal Medicine and the Ann Arbor VA Center for Clinical Management Research. Dr. Kerr studies ways to develop and implement innovative methods to improve quality of care for patients with chronic illness. In particular, she studies ways to develop more clinically meaningful and valid performance measures that motivate quality improvement for patients at high risk for poor outcomes while minimizing potential for unintended consequences. Her studies use such clinically meaningful measures, as well as assessments of medication adherence, to motivate appropriate medication management, enhanced patient self-management, and better outcomes for patients with diabetes. Dr. Kerr has also been instrumental in development of the RAND QA Tools system, and in demonstrating a VA quality advantage relative to patients in the private sector. She has spoken nationally and internationally about performance measurement issues and translating quality improvement lessons from VA to other healthcare systems.
Richard L. Lichtenstein, Ph.D.
Core Faculty
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
Richard Lichtenstein, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Health Management and Policy. He received both his M.P.H. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in medical care organization, and a B.S. from Cornell University in industrial and labor relations. Dr. Lichtenstein's research interests include: Community-Based Participatory Research; Racial and ethnic disparities in health; Barriers to health insurance coverage for low-income children; The effects of discrimination on access to health care; and, efforts to increase diversity in the health workforce. Dr. Lichtenstein is the director of the University of Michigan Summer Enrichment Program in Health Management, an internship program for undergraduate students interested in eliminating health disparities. He is also the director of the University of Michigan Training Site for the Kellogg Health Scholars Program, Community Track. Dr. Lichtenstein is involved in the governance of two Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Associations (VEBAs), which provide health benefits to groups of retirees. Dr. Lichtenstein formerly was Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.
Robert McGranaghan, M.P.H.
Core Faculty
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
Robert McGranaghan, M.P.H., Research Area Specialist Senior and Adjunct Lecturer has been the Project Manager of the Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center (URC) since its inception in 1995. He has a bachelor's degree from Penn State University in marketing, and a masters in public health from Temple University in community health education. Mr. McGranaghan developed, implemented and evaluated community and worksite-based health education interventions as part of his work with the Southeast Pennsylvania High Blood Pressure Control Program, and served as project director on several major interdisciplinary grants sponsored by federal (NIH) and state agencies. These include: a California Department of Health-funded cancer awareness/risk reduction project based in four Northern California counties; NCI's Community Intervention Trial for Smoking Cessation (“COMMIT”) based in Oakland and Vallejo, CA; and a NIDA-funded substance abuse outpatient care effectiveness study at a Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Sacramento, CA. Since 2002, Mr. McGranaghan has been actively involved in the national project “Examining Community-Institutional Partnerships for Prevention Research”. In this effort he provided leadership in the development of an evidence-based training curriculum on community-based participatory research (CBPR) and has presented the curriculum at such venues as the Society of Public Health Education Mid-Year Conference; three continuing education institutes held at annual meetings of the American Public Health Association; and a continuing education institute sponsored by Community-Campus Partnerships for Health in Washington state. Mr. McGranaghan has extensive experience in communicating and coordinating activities involving individuals from multiple disciplines and diverse communities; managing large-scale projects; and documenting and disseminating results from CBPR partnership activities. In addition, he teaches a course on budgeting for health education programs for the graduate students in the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. The Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center (URC) is a collaborative partnership involving the University of Michigan Schools of Public Health, Nursing, and Social Work, the Detroit Department of Health and Wellness Promotion, eight Detroit community-based organizations, and Henry Ford Health System. The Center was established in 1995 through a Cooperative Agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through their Urban Research Centers Initiative. The overall goal of the URC is to promote and support interdisciplinary, collaborative, community-based participatory research that improves the health and quality of life of families and communities on the east, southwest and northwest sides of Detroit, and contributes to the understanding of reducing health disparities and the relationship between social determinants, protective factors, intermediate outcomes, and long-term health outcomes specific to urban environments. (www.sph.umich.edu/urc)
Laurence F. McMahon, M.D., M.P.H.
Senior Associate Director
Core Faculty
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
Laurence F. McMahon, M.D., M.P.H., is Chief of the Division of General Medicine and Professor of Internal Medicine and Health Management and Policy. He received an MPH from Yale University in Hospital Administration. While at Yale he worked with the group that developed the Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) system that serves as the basis of Medicare’s Prospective Payment System for hospitals. He also received subspecialty training in Gastroenterology at Yale, where he was also a postdoctoral fellow in the Health System’s Management Group at Yale’s School of Organization and Management. His research focuses on health care management and clinical systems to improve health care outcomes and quality.
Caroline Richardson, M.D.
Core Faculty
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
Caroline Richardson, M.D., is a practicing Family Physician and an associate professor in the University of Michigan Medical School Department of Family Medicine. She holds a joint appointment as a Research Scientist at the VA Health Services Research and Development Service in Ann Arbor, MI. She is also a Research Scientist with the Institute for Research on Women and Gender. Dr. Richardson received an undergraduate degree from MIT in Mathematics, and she received her medical degree from Harvard. She completed her residency in Family Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia and completed a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Fellowship at the University of Michigan. The main focus of Dr. Richardson's research is on integrating physical activity promotion into routine medical care. She is looking at several aspects of this issue including: 1) costs and benefits of increasing physical activity promotion, 2) objective measurement of physical activity in the primary care setting, and 3) intervention evaluation.
Mary A.M. Rogers, Ph.D.
Core Faculty
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
Mary A.M. Rogers, Ph.D., is the Research Director of the Patient Safety Enhancement Program at the University of Michigan Health System and Ann Arbor VA Medical Center. She is a clinical epidemiologist and received her training at the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle. Her research interests include analyses of causal pathways and exploration of methods for addressing clinical hypotheses.
Sanjay Saint, M.D., M.P.H.
Core Faculty
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
Sanjay Saint, M.D., M.P.H., a Professor of Internal Medicine at the Ann Arbor VA Medical Center and the University of Michigan, is the Director of the VA/University of Michigan Patient Safety Enhancement Program and a core faculty member of the University of Michigan’s Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program. His research focuses on: enhancing patient safety by preventing healthcare-associated complications; translating research findings into practice; and medical decision-making (including cognitive errors). He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed papers with approximately 50 appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, or the Annals of Internal Medicine. His research is currently funded through extramural grants from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Saint has also authored or edited several books, including the Saint-Frances Guide to Inpatient Medicine (published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins) and Clinical Problem-Solving (published by McGraw-Hill), and is a Special Correspondent to the New England Journal of Medicine. He received his Medical Doctorate from UCLA, completed a medical residency and chief residency at the University of California at San Francisco, and obtained a Masters in Public Health (as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar) from the University of Washington in Seattle.
Dylan Smith, Ph.D.
Core Faculty
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
Dylan Smith, Ph.D., is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine as well as a Health Science Research Specialist at the Ann Arbor VA Health Services Research and Development Center of Excellence. Dr. Smith studied social psychology at Arizona State University, where his work focused on interpersonal and intergroup relations and evolutionary psychology. His current research seeks to translate theoretical and methodological advances in the behavioral sciences to the study of health-related quality of life (HRQOL). He is particularly interested in the links between medical decision-making and well-being and the ways in which interpersonal aspects of the medical setting influence these factors. Outside interests include playing guitar and engaging in hours of quiet reflection with his two sons.
Tony Tsai, MBA
Core Faculty
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
Tony Tsai, MBA is a organizational consultant at the University of Michigan Health System. He received his MBA from Columbia Business School and is trained in organizational behavior and finance. Prior to working at the Health System, he was the Associate Director of Career Development at the Stephen M. Ross School of business where he oversaw the career education and counseling program there. Currently, he is working on special projects relating to leadership development, organizational process design, and social networking at the Health System.
Sandeep Vijan, M.D., M.Sc.
Core Faculty
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
Sandeep Vijan is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan and a Research Scientist and Physician at the Ann Arbor VA Health System. Dr. Vijan’s research interests primarily center around identifying and implementing value-based interventions as a basis for health-system reform. His primary goal is to develop models to examine the costs, risks, and benefits of applying approaches to personalized medicine for a variety of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease prevention, diabetes management, colorectal cancer screening, and mental health disorders. He also has research interest in applying these models to improve shared decision-making processes, applying them to develop more nuanced measures of quality of care, and in examining how they may improve the efficiency and value of health care delivery. He has recently expanded his work to broader, national assessments of health policy to examine how we can best determine the value of health care and thus best inform the reform of the health care system. In addition to his research activities, he is the author of a number of local, national and international clinical guidelines related to diabetes management, and is serving his 2nd term as the chair of a VA Merit Review study section. He also serves as a research mentor to a number of junior faculty and fellows ranging across disciplines and specialties. Dr. Vijan received his MD from the University of Michigan, where he also completed his post-doctoral residency and fellowship training, including a Masters degree in clinical research design and statistical analysis.
Patricia A. Warner, M.P.H.
Core Faculty
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
Patricia A. Warner, M.P.H., is an Associate Hospital Director for the University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers (UMHHC) and the Chief Administrative Officer for C.S. Mott Children’s and Women’s Hospitals. In this role since 1994, she is the corporate lead for all Children’s and Women’s Services and provides strategic direction, administrative and operational leadership to multiple services, functions and Hospitals. To assist Mott Children’s Hospital in child advocacy, community outreach and fundraising, she has created a Community Board of Advisors consisting of prominent community leaders throughout southeast Michigan. Ms. Warner is lead for the $523M Children’s and Women’s Hospital Replacement Project. In addition, Ms. Warner is responsible for the administration of the Institution’s Community Health Initiative, Women’s Health Program, Social Work and a number of clinical services throughout the University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers. Nationally, Ms. Warner is a past board member of the National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions (NACHRI) and the board of the Council for Child Advocacy (a branch of NACHRI), and a member of the American Public Health Association (APHA). In Washtenaw County, she serves on the Arbor Hospice Board of Directors and is a member of other community agency boards. She is the Past President of the Society for Ambulatory Care Professionals and served on the board of the Special Wish Foundation. She was elected to the Board of Governors of the University of Michigan, School of Public Health and to the Health Administration Section Council of the APHA. Ms. Warner received her Master’s Degree in Public Health in Health Planning and Administration from the University of Michigan School of Public Health.
Brian J. Zikmund-Fisher, Ph.D.
Core Faculty
Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program
Brian J. Zikmund-Fisher, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and is also affiliated with UM Department of Internal Medicine and the UM/VA Center for Behavioral and Decision Sciences in Medicine. A behavioral scientist with training and expertise in decision psychology, survey research, and behavioral economics, Dr. Zikmund-Fisher uses his interdisciplinary background to study factors that affect individual decision making about a variety of health and medical issues, with a particular emphasis on risk perceptions and the effects of poor numeracy (people's ability to interpret quantitative information) on health and medical decision making. His research in health communications focuses on improving risk communication and identifying how message design factors (such as order or framing) can alter the cognitive and emotional meanings people take away from the health messages they receive. He currently serves on the editorial board of Medical Decision Making and has published in journals as varied as Patient Education and Counseling, Risk Analysis, the Journal of Health Communication, and Cancer.
