2009 NATIONAL HERO
John E. Wennberg, M.D., M.P.H.
For his leadership in pointing the way for cost reduction and efficacy improvements in the U.S. health care system
John E. Wennberg, M.D., M.P.H., is the Peggy Y. Thomson Professor (Chair) in the Evaluative Clinical Sciences and founder and director emeritus of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. He is also a professor of community and family medicine (epidemiology) and professor of medicine at Dartmouth Medical School. Dr. Wennberg has received numerous awards and is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science and the Johns Hopkins University Society of Scholars.
With colleague Alan Gittelsohn, Dr. Wennberg developed a strategy for studying the population-based rates of health resource allocation and utilization. This method, called small area analysis and first published in 1973, revealed large variations in health care usage among different areas. Work to uncover the reasons behind these variations led Dr. Wennberg and his colleagues to develop techniques to document the results of common medical practices, a strategy that came to be called outcomes research.
Dr. Wennberg is the founding editor of The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, which examines the patterns of medical resource intensity and utilization in the United States. The Atlas project has also reported on patterns of end of life care, inequities in the Medicare reimbursement system, and the underuse of preventive care.
Award Presenter
Richard M. Levy, Ph.D., is chairman of the board of directors of Varian Medical Systems, a company adapting high technology to the treatment of cancer. He was CEO of the company from 1999 to 2006. He served as senior vice president of Varian from 1989 to 1992, overseeing business areas including semiconductor equipment and vacuum products. He became executive vice president of the corporation in 1992 and oversaw the medical businesses and the Ginzton Technology Center, the company's research and development center.
The Challenge: Ensuring an Efficient and Effective Health Care Delivery System
The United States spends more money on health care than any other industrialized nation, but often the quality of care is not commensurate with the cost. In addition there are huge disparities in health outcomes depending on where people live in the country. This is true not only across states and regions, but within individual states and cities.
The disparities in care—which can also be seen across ethnic groups—obviously harm patients. They also represent billions of dollars in wasteful and unnecessary spending. Recent editions of the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care have shown that the United States could lower health care costs substantially if the highest intensity hospitals adopted the practices of the nation's best performing hospitals. This would also result in better health outcomes for patients in underperforming areas of the country.
The School of Public Health Responds
- A leading scholar in the field of quality of health care, Dean Stephen Shortell heads the National Study of Physician Organizations and the Management of Chronic Illness. He has conducted extensive research identifying the organizational and managerial correlates of quality of care and of high performing health care organizations. He also looks at integrated health care systems and their role in lowering health care costs and improving outcomes.
- The School offers a concurrent master’s degree program with the Haas School of Business. Graduates of this program, who earn master’s degrees in public health and business administration, are prepared for leadership roles in both business and delivery aspects of health services and technology industries.
- The Nicholas C. Petris Center on Health Care Markets & Consumer Welfare conducts research on health, consumer protection, and affordability and access to health care, particularly for especially by low- and moderate-income consumers. It also assesses concentration, regulation, and competition in the health care markets. Petris Center director Richard Scheffler recently published Is There A Doctor In The House? Market Signals and Tomorrow's Supply of Doctors, which analyzes the shortcomings of the U.S. health care system.
- The Health Policy & Management division trains graduates for positions of senior-level leadership in health services—including health care delivery, managed care, and insurance. Students in this program learn to conduct research and disseminate knowledge that will advance the organization, financing, and delivery of health and medical services.
