Charles E. Phelps is an expert on health care economics, digital scholarship, and intellectual property rights, and is the former Provost (education) of the University of Rochester, from July 1, 1994 [1] until he retired on July 31, 2007. [2]
Phelps started his career at the RAND Corporation, working from 1971 to 1984, where, working with Joseph P. Newhouse, PhD, he helped to found the RAND Health Insurance Experiment. [3] He also conducted research in health economics, environmental policy, California water policy, [4] worker safety, petroleum price regulation and U.S. price control programs. [5]
In 1984 he joined the University of Rochester as a professor and director of the public policy analysis program.
In 1989, Phelps became chair of the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine in the School of Medicine and Dentistry (now the Department of Public Health Sciences). There he created a new PhD program in health services research and policy. [6]
In 1994, Phelps became the University of Rochester’s seventh Provost. [7] He worked closely with the University’s then-President, Thomas H. Jackson to conceive and implement the University’s Renaissance Plan. [8] [9]
During this period, in 2003, he served for 8 weeks as Interim Senior Vice President for Health Affairs as well as in his role as Provost. [10]
Since his retirement as Provost in 2007, he has held the titles of University Professor and Provost Emeritus. He retired from the University faculty in 2010. [11]
In 1992, Phelps created the first edition of his textbook, Health Economics, now in its 6th edition. [12] It has been translated in various versions into French (1st edition), Chinese (2nd edition), Arabic (3rd edition), and Korean (5th edition).
In 2010, Phelps authored the book Eight Questions You Should Ask about Our Health Care System: (Even if the Answers Make You Sick). [13]
In 2017, with coauthor Stephen T. Parente, PhD, Phelps published The Economics of US Health Care Policy, a major analysis of the economic incentives within the U.S. healthcare system and recommendations for policy changes that would improve market efficiency and consumer well-being. [14]
In 2021, Phelps, with coauthor Guru Madhavan, PhD, [15] analyzed the use of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) models. in their Oxford University Press book entitled Making Better Choices: Design, Decisions and Democracy. [16] This work emphasized use of MCDA models when groups serve as the relevant decisionmaker, rather than the commonly-assumed single-person decisionmaker, thus combining for the first time the separate fields of study of MCDA models and social choice theory. [17]
In 2024, Phelps, with coauthor Darius Lakdawalla, PhD, published Valuing Health: The Generalized Risk-Adjusted Cost Effectiveness (GRACE) Model. This Oxford University Press book [18] describes and extends the new approach that they developed to properly value gains in health when allowing for diminishing returns to health in creating value to consumers. A key conceptual paper for this work was chosen by ISPOR—The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research for the Health Economics and Outcomes Research – Methodology in 2021. [19] The GRACE model reverses previous (and incomplete) models of valuing healthcare that discriminate against disabled people. The GRACE model shows that health gains are greater for those in the worst health either from acute illness or pre-existing disability than for otherwise-similar people who are in better health.
Since 2007, Phelps also has maintained a health economics consulting practice that serves health care providers, biopharmaceutical companies, the Office of Health Economics in London, U.K., [20] and EntityRisk, a health economics consulting firm. [21]
Phelps served as a fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. [22] Since 2012, he has been a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at the University of Southern California. [23] He has served on committees for the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences (now the National Academy of Medicine), first to create the SMART Vaccines MCDA model to help prioritize vaccine development in 2012-2015 [24] and then in 2016-2017, Making Medicines Affordable: A National Imperative. [25]
From 2017-2018, he was a member of the ISPOR Special Task Force on "A Health Economics Approach to US Value Assessment Frameworks, authoring or coauthoring three of their seven reports. [26] [27] [28] His current research focuses on improving and expanding the use of GRACE and MCDA methods to improve the value of healthcare used around the world. He also works with the Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation [29] to improve understanding about the importance of properly diagnosing and treating this important affliction.
Phelps is the only person ever to receive lifetime achievement awards from the two most-prominent health economics professional organizations in the world. Most recently, in 2023, he received the Avedis Donabedian Outcomes Research Lifetime Achievement Award [30] from ISPOR—The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research. In 2019, he received the Victor R. Fuchs Award for Lifetime Contributions to the Field of Health Economics [31] from the American Society of Health Economists [32] .
Previously, he was elected in 1991 to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, now the National Academy of Medicine.
He also served two terms on the Report Review Committee of the National Research Council, which oversees all National Academy reports [33] . He was also elected to the National Academy of Social Insurance in 1999. [34]
Phelps participated from 1997 to 2007 in the Association of American Universities' Committee on Digital Technology and Intellectual Property Rights. In this capacity, he testified before Congress in June 1998 on issues pertaining to the implementation of the World Intellectual Property Organization treaty [35] and has spoken on related matters in conferences on these issues sponsored by, among others, the Department of Commerce. He also testified, in July 2005, on patent reform for the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Intellectual Property. [36]
Phelps has served on the following organizational boards of directors and advisory boards: Association of American Universities,Intellectual Property Committee (Washington, D.C., 1997-2007) Center for Research Libraries, Board of Directors (Chicago, IL, 2004-2010) Council on Library and Information Resources, Board of Directors [37] (Washington, D.C., 1998-2006. Chair, 2004-2006) Health Care Cost Institute Board of Directors (Washington, D.C. 2015-2021) Institute of Medicine, Board on Health Promotion and Diseases Prevention (Washington, D.C., 1980-1984) Library of Congress, National Advisory Committee for Digital Strategies [38] (Washington, D.C. 2001-2008) Thompson Scientific, Inc. National Advisory Board (Washington, D.C. 2004-2009) VirtualScopics, Inc., Board of Directors [39] (Rochester, NY, 2006-2016, Chair 2014-2016]
After graduating from East High School (Denver, Colorado) in 1961, Phelps received his bachelor's degree in mathematics from Pomona College in Claremont, California in 1965. He then earned an MBA in hospital administration [1968] and a PhD in business economics from the University of Chicago in 1973. [40]
Dr. Phelps married Dale Lee King, MD, a resident of Long Beach CA and fellow Pomona College student, on September 2, 1967. They have two children. They live in Pittsford, NY.
The Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School is a private graduate school associated with the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California. The school offers doctoral studies in policy analysis and practical experience working on RAND research projects to solve current public policy problems. Its campus is co-located with the RAND Corporation and most of the faculty is drawn from the 950 researchers at RAND.
Dennis Frank Thompson is a political scientist and professor at Harvard University, where he founded the university-wide Center for Ethics and the Professions. Thompson is known for his pioneering work in the fields of both political ethics and democratic theory. According to a recent appraisal, he has become “influential within the world of political theory" by offering “greater concrete political thought than Rawls” and by showing “an atypical grasp, for a political theorist, of the real political world.”
Trevor A. Sheldon is a British academic and University administrator who is a former Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of York and Dean of Hull York Medical School. He has held academic posts at the University of York, the University of Leeds, the University of Leicester and Kingston University.
Carl J. Schramm is an American economist, entrepreneur, author, former President of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and University Professor at Syracuse University. He is the author of the book Burn the Business Plan: What Great Entrepreneurs Really Do, published by Simon & Schuster. The Economist named Schramm the "evangelist of entrepreneurship".
Health technology assessment (HTA) is a multidisciplinary process that uses systematic and explicit methods to evaluate the properties and effects of a health technology. Health technology is conceived as any intervention at any point in its lifecycle. The purpose of HTA is to inform "decision-making in order to promote an equitable, efficient, and high-quality health system". It has other definitions including "a method of evidence synthesis that considers evidence regarding clinical effectiveness, safety, cost-effectiveness and, when broadly applied, includes social, ethical, and legal aspects of the use of health technologies. The precise balance of these inputs depends on the purpose of each individual HTA. A major use of HTAs is in informing reimbursement and coverage decisions by insurers and national health systems, in which case HTAs should include benefit-harm assessment and economic evaluation." And "a multidisciplinary process that summarises information about the medical, social, economic and ethical issues related to the use of a health technology in a systematic, transparent, unbiased, robust manner. Its aim is to inform the formulation of safe, effective, health policies that are patient focused and seek to achieve best value. Despite its policy goals, HTA must always be firmly rooted in research and the scientific method".
Professor José María Valderas Martínez is an Academic General Practitioner and health services researcher.
David S. Guzick an American reproductive endocrinologist and economist. He served as Senior Vice President of Health Affairs and President of UF Health at the University of Florida from 2009 to 2018, and is Emeritus Dean of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.
Craig M. Phelps is the president and provost of A.T. Still University, a professional health science school located in Kirksville, Missouri, and Mesa, Arizona. As provost, Dr. Phelps oversees the A.T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona, Arizona School of Health Sciences and the Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health. Phelps graduated medical school from A.T. Still University KCOM in 1984. Dr. Phelps is the recipient of the 2006 KOAA Distinguished Service Award, ATSU’s George Windsor Award in 2007, and Health Care Heroes Finalist in 2008. Also in 2008 he was a Living Tribute Award Recipient.
Karen Davis is president of The Commonwealth Fund, a national philanthropy engaged in independent research on health and social policy issues. Davis is an economist, with a career in public policy and research. Before joining The Commonwealth Fund, she served as chairman of the Department of Health Policy and Management at The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, where she also held an appointment as professor of economics. She served as deputy assistant secretary for health policy in the Department of Health and Human Services from 1977–1980, becoming the first woman to head a U.S. public health service agency.
Rashi Fein was an American health economist termed "a father of Medicare" in the United States and "an architect of Medicare", was Professor of Economics of Medicine, Emeritus, in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and the author of the book Medical Care, Medical Costs: The Search for a Health Insurance Policy.
Alan Michael Garber is an American physician, health economist, and academic administrator serving as the 31st president of Harvard University since January 2024.
Daniel Diermeier is a political scientist and university administrator. He is serving as the ninth chancellor of Vanderbilt University. Previously, Diermeier was the David Lee Shillinglaw Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, where he also served as provost.
Mark V. Pauly is an American economist whose work focuses on healthcare management and business economics. He is currently the Bendheim Professor in the Department of Health Care Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Pauly is a former commissioner on the Physician Payment Review Commission, and has been a consultant to the Congressional Budget Office, the Office of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the American Enterprise Institute, and served on the Medicare Technical Advisory Panel. He is also the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Springer journal International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics, and was formerly the Robert D. Eilers Professor from 1984 to 1989.
Dr. Harold L. Paz is the former executive vice president of health sciences at Stony Brook University and former chief executive officer of Stony Brook University Medicine. He is the former executive vice president and chancellor for health affairs at Ohio State University and chief executive officer of the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center. Prior to that, he served as executive vice president and chief medical officer at CVS Health/Aetna.
ISPOR—The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research, also known as ISPOR is a global, nonprofit 501(c)(3) public organization for educational and scientific purposes, as defined by the United States Internal Revenue Service.
Melissa Andrea Simon is an American clinical obstetrician/gynecologist and scientist who focuses on health equity across the lifespan. Simon is founder and director of the Center for Health Equity Transformation (CHET) in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, and founder of the Chicago Cancer Health Equity Collaborative, a National Cancer Institute comprehensive cancer partnership led by the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, Northeastern Illinois University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is the George H. Gardner, MD Professor of Clinical Gynecology, the Vice-Chair of Clinical Research in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, tenured professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Preventive Medicine and Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and Associate Director of Community Outreach and Engagement at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Giselle Corbie-Smith is the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Social Medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. She serves as Director of the UNC Center for Health Equity Research and Associate Provost of the Institute of Rural Innovation. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2018. Her research considers racial disparities in healthcare.
Sherri Rose is an American biostatistician. She is an associate professor of health care policy at Stanford University, and once worked at Harvard University. A fellow of the American Statistical Association, she has served as co-editor of Biostatistics since 2019 and Chair of the American Statistical Association’s Biometrics Section. Her research focuses on statistical machine learning for health care policy.
A. Eugene Washington is an American physician, clinical investigator, and administrator. He served as the chancellor for health affairs at Duke University, and the president and chief executive officer of the Duke University Health System, from 2015 to 2023. His research considers gynaecology, health disparities, and public health policy. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 1997 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2014.
Richard Michael Scheffler is an American health economist whose career has focused on applying health economics to public policy both nationally and globally. He is a Distinguished Professor of Health Economics and Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley in the Graduate School of Public Health and the Goldman School of Public Policy. He is the Founding Director of the campus-affiliated, research-driven Nicholas C. Petris Center on Health Care Markets and Consumer Welfare.