Lisa Iezzoni

Last updated
Lisa Iezzoni
Alma mater Harvard Medical School
Scientific career
Institutions Harvard University

Lisa I. Iezzoni (born 1954) [1] is an American medical researcher with expertise in health policy. She is a professor at Harvard Medical School, [2] and based at the Health Policy Research Center [3] , Mongan Institute [4] , an affiliate of Massachusetts General Hospital. [5] She has dedicated her career to shining a light on inequities in health care among people affected with disabilities. [1] [6]

Contents

Education

Iezzoni attended the Harvard School of Public Health in the 1970s, from which she received a master's degree in health policy. She went on to enroll in Harvard Medical School, only to be diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in her first year as a student there. [1] [7] [8] She received her M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1984. [9] [10] When the time came to apply for post-graduate training, Harvard Medical School refused to write her a letter of recommendation, preventing her from applying for an internship and residency program and thus from practicing medicine. She therefore became a researcher. [11] There were extreme barriers to practicing medicine with a disability at the time (the Americans with Disabilities Act had not yet been passed). [12] [13]

Career

Iezzoni served as an assistant professor at Boston University School of Medicine, while also working in the Health Care Research Unit there. [1] For sixteen years, she was director of research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where she became the first woman affiliated with the center to be appointed a professor at Harvard Medical School. [7] In 2006, she became the associate director of Massachusetts General Hospital's Partners Institute for Health Policy (since renamed the Mongan Institute for Health Policy). [7] She has served on many national committees and advisory boards, such as for the National Institutes of Health, National Academy of Medicine, National Quality Forum, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars program, National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, as well as the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives for 2020, which advised the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). From 2012 to 2013, Dr. Iezzoni chaired the U.S. Access Board’s Medical Diagnostic Equipment Accessibility Standards Advisory Committee, which provided advice on making medical diagnostic equipment accessible to people with disabilities. The HHS cited Dr. Iezzoni’s research multiple times in proposed federal regulations issued in September 2023 (which were finalized in May 2024) to update disability nondiscrimination rules in health care under Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act. [14] One of the students she mentored at Harvard Medical School was Cheri Blauwet. [15] She wrote When Walking Fails, Mobility Problems of Adults with Chronic Conditions. [12]

Selected publications

Honors and awards

In 1996, Iezzoni launched her disability research with an Investigator Award in Health Policy Research [14] from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and in 2024 received the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation David E. Rogers Award [14] . She has served on the National Quality Forum's board of directors, and has received the American College of Medical Quality's Founder's Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field. She was also included in a National Institutes of Health exhibit on American women physicians who are "changing the face of medicine". [16]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Dr. Lisa I. Iezzoni". Changing the Face of Medicine. Retrieved 2018-07-05.
  2. ↑ "Doctor's visits can be real hurdles for disabled people". The Denver Post. 2018-10-28. Retrieved 2019-12-18.
  3. ↑ "About Dr. Iezzoni". HEALTH POLICY RESEARCH CENTER. 2018-07-26. Retrieved 2025-02-19.
  4. ↑ "D-J faculty | The Mongan Institute". Mongan. Retrieved 2025-02-19.
  5. ↑ "Health Policy Research Center". Massachusetts General Hospital. Archived from the original on 2025-01-13. Retrieved 2025-02-19.
  6. ↑ Gordon, Elana (2018-04-14). "Doctors with disabilities seek to mend attitudes". The Philadelphia Tribune. Retrieved 2018-07-05.
  7. 1 2 3 "Iezzoni leads Institute for Health Policy". Massachusetts General Hospital (Press release). 2009-05-01. Archived from the original on 2018-07-05. Retrieved 2018-07-05.
  8. ↑ "Doctors With Disabilities Push For Culture Change In Medicine". www.kcur.org. 8 August 2018. Retrieved 2019-12-18.
  9. ↑ "MGH Find a Researcher: Lisa Iezzoni, MD". Massachusetts General Hospital. Archived from the original on 2018-07-05. Retrieved 2018-07-05.
  10. ↑ "What does it mean to be a doctor with a disability?". WHYY. Retrieved 2019-12-18.
  11. ↑ Jones, Therese; Wear, Delese; Friedman, Lester D.; Pachucki, Kathleen, eds. (2014). Health humanities reader. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. ISBN   978-0-8135-6247-6.
  12. 1 2 Shapiro, Joseph (2003-10-16). "When Walking Fails". NPR. Retrieved 2018-07-05.
  13. ↑ Villarosa, Linda (2003-11-25). "Barriers Toppling for Disabled Medical Students". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-07-05.
  14. 1 2 3 "2024 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation David E. Rogers Award". AAMC. Retrieved 2025-02-19.
  15. ↑ Blauwet, Cheri (2017-12-06). "I Use a Wheelchair. And Yes, I'm Your Doctor". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-07-05.
  16. ↑ "Lisa Iezzoni, MD". NMSS. Archived from the original on 2018-07-05. Retrieved 2018-07-05.
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