Dr. Birkmeyer received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Massachusetts–Amherst in 1990, completed a Master of Science Degree in Epidemiology and fellowship in the Epidemiology of Cardiovascular Disease at Harvard in 1992, and was the first graduate of the Ph.D. program at Dartmouth’s Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences in 1997. Her dissertation work focused on issues related to outcomes and clinical decision making for patients undergoing aortic valve replacement. From 1997 to 2003, as a member of the faculty of the Department of Surgery at Dartmouth Medical School, Dr. Birkmeyer worked with the Northern New England Cardiovascular Disease Research Group and the Spine Patients Outcomes Research Trial on the design and conduct of epidemiologic and outcomes studies for evaluating treatments and improving care in cardiovascular and musculoskeletal surgery. In her current role as the Associate Director of M-SCORE, Dr. Birkmeyer is working on evaluating surgical treatments and quality of care in cancer, obesity, and cardiovascular diseases.

Selected publications:
Birkmeyer NJO, Goodney PP, Stukel TA, Hillner BE, Birkmeyer JD, Do Cancer Centers Designated by the National Cancer Institute Have Better Surgical Outcomes? Cancer 2005; 103(3):435-41.

Birkmeyer NJO, Share D, Campbell DA, Prager RL, Moscucci M, Birkmeyer JD. Partnering with payers to improve surgical quality: The Michigan plan. Surgery 2005; 138(5):815-820.

Birkmeyer NJO, Wei Y, Goldfaden AM, Birkmeyer JD. Characteristics of hospitals performing bariatric surgery. JAMA 2006; 295(3):282-284.

Birkmeyer NJO, Birkmeyer JD. Sounding Board. Strategies for Improving Surgical Quality: Should Payers Reward Excellence or Effort? NEJM 2006; 354(8):864-870.