Triangle Health Economics

The Triangle Health Economics site provides a convenient listing of online sources to Triangle health economics researchers, centers, and institutes, and includes the schedule for the Triangle Health Economics Workshop, which is held approximately bi-weekly during the academic year to bring together health economists from across the Triangle to discuss current research by invited speakers.

Faculty Research Areas

The Department of Health Policy and Management has a very active and well-funded research program addressed to a wide range of contemporary healthcare issues. HPM faculty are listed alphabetically by name below with links to their contact information. The table is filterable alphabetically by research interest, subject matter expertise and research skills expertise, and searchable by keyword.

Faculty NameResearch InterestsSubject Matter ExpertiseResearch Skills/Methods Expertise
Ethan Basch, MD, MSC

  • Comparative effectiveness research

  • Drug regulatory policy

  • Patient-reported outcomes
    • Cancer

    • Quality/Quality Improvement/Performance Measures
    • Patient-Centered Outcomes

    • Psychometrics and Questionnaire/Survey Development
    Antonia Bennett, PhD
    • Analysis of longitudinal PRO data

    • Evaluation of long-term symptom reporting with clinician notification to improve functional outcomes following sphincter-preserving surgery for colorectal cancer

    • Implementation of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) and other forms of patient-generated health data (PGHD) in oncology practice, clinical trials, and comparative effectiveness research

    • Longitudinal registry study of pain in metastatic prostate cancer

    • Outcomes assessment in palliative care populations

    • Qualitative research and psychometrics for the validation of PROs

    • Survey methodology; and strategies for electronic administration of PROs
    • Aging, End of Life

    • Cancer

    • Health Information Technology/Mobile Apps

    • Quality/Quality Improvement/Performance Measures
    • Patient-Centered Outcomes

    • Psychometrics and Questionnaire/Survey Development

    • Qualitative Research Skills

    • Randomized Control Trials/Experiments
    Leah Frerichs, PhD
    • American Indian cancer disparities

    • Integration of engaged and participatory research with systems thinking and systems science

    • Simulation modeling and network analysis

    • Social and physical environment influences on obesity and obesity-related health behaviors

    • System influences on health and wellness in underserved communities

    • Technology-based research and intervention
    • Cancer

    • Community Health/Collective Impact

    • Disparities/Social Determinants of Health

    • Health Information Technology/Mobile Apps

    • Obesity

    • Population Health/Public Health

    • Rural Health

    • Community-based Participatory Research

    • Decision Sciences

    • Geographic Analysis (GIS)

    • Implementation Science/Dissemination of Innovation

    • Mixed Methods

    • Program Evaluation

    • Public Health Systems Strengthening

    • Qualitative Research Skills

    • Systems Science
    Bill Gentry, MPA
    • Disaster Management

    • Health administration

    • Health policy

    • Public health leadership

    • Public Health Preparedness
    • Disaster Management

    • Leadership Development

    • Pandemic Preparedness

    • Population Health/Public Health
    Sandra B Greene, DrPH
    • Healthcare Planning and Certificate of Need

    • Healthcare Policy Issues in North Carolina

    • Healthcare Utilization and Cost Trends

    • Health Insurance and Managed Care

    • Physician Profiling
    • Healthcare Utilization and Costs

    • Health Insurance/Managed Care

    • Quality/Quality Improvement/Performance Measures
    • Secondary Data Analysis (Large Datasets Analytics)
    Susan Helm-Murtagh, DrPH, MMHealth Informatics
  • Information Management
    • Health Information Technology/Mobile Apps

    • Health Insurance/Managed Care

    • Leadership Development

    • Strategic Management/Organizational Governance
    Mark Holmes, PhD
    • Patient-centered outcomes research

    • Policy implementation and policy development

    • Rural healthcare

    • Workforce
    • Healthcare Utilization and Costs

    • Medicaid/Uninsured/Safety Net

    • Rural Health

    • Workforce
    • Finance

    • Health Economics

    • Patient-Centered Outcomes

    • Secondary Data Analysis (Large Datasets Analytics)
    Erin Kent, PhD
    • Cancer caregiving

    • Cancer survivorship

    • Data linkages and informatics

    • Mixed methods

    • Palliative care

    • Patient-reported outcomes

    • Social determinants of health

    • Survey development
    • Aging, End of Life

    • Cancer

    • Disparities/Social Determinants of Health

    • Health Information Technology/Mobile Apps

    • Health Insurance/Managed Care

    • Population Health/Public Health

    • Quality/Quality Improvement/Performance Measures

    • Rural Health
    • Community-based Participatory Research

    • Geographic Analysis (GIS)

    • Mixed Methods

    • Patient-Centered Outcomes

    • Psychometrics and Questionnaire/Survey Development

    • Qualitative Research Skills

    • Secondary Data Analysis (Large Datasets Analytics)
    Sheila Leatherman, MSW
    • Health Systems Performance

    • International Health Policy

    • Micro-financing
    • Global Health

    • Quality/Quality Improvement/Performance Measures
    Jessica Y. Lee, DDS, PhD
    • Dental Public Health

    • Evidence-based Practice of Dentistry
    • Oral Health
    Kristen Hassmiller Lich, PhD
    • Econometrics in Healthcare

    • Infectious Disease Modeling

    • Operations Research Application in Complex Systems

    • Tobacco Policy

    • Tuberculosis Control
    • Community Health/Collective Impact

    • Women and Children's Health

    • Cost Benefit/Cost Effectiveness Analysis

    • Decision Sciences

    • Operations Research

    • Public Health Systems Strengthening

    • Systems Science
    Valerie Lewis, PhD
    • Healthcare delivery reform

    • Socioeconomic disparities in outcomes
    • Disparities/Social Determinants of Health

    • Healthcare Utilization and Costs

    • Health Insurance/Managed Care

    • Medicaid/Uninsured/Safety Net

    • Medicare Policy

    • Population Health/Public Health

    • Quality/Quality Improvement/Performance Measures
    • Mixed Methods

    • Organizational Development/Strategic Planning

    • Public Policy/Legal Analysis

    • Psychometrics and Questionnaire/Survey Development

    • Qualitative Research Skills

    • Secondary Data Analysis (Large Datasets Analytics)
    Jonathan B. Oberlander, PhD
    • Aging and Public Policy

    • American Politics and Public Policy

    • Healthcare Reform

    • Health Politics and Policy

    • Medicaid

    • Medicare
    • Health Insurance/Managed Care

    • Medicaid/Uninsured/Safety Net

    • Medicare Policy
    • Public Policy/Legal Analysis
    Arrianna M. Planey, PhD

    • Applied spatial analysis

    • Healthcare access/Access to care for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries

    • Rural healthcare

    • Healthcare workforce

    • Social Determinants of Health (SDoH)

    • Health and Healthcare Equity

    • Social epidemiology

    • GIS methods
    • Disparities/Social Determinants of Health

    • Medicaid/Uninsured/Safety Net

    • Population Health/Public Health

    • Rural Health

    • Workforce
    • Geographic Analysis (GIS)
    Kristin L. Reiter, PhD
    • Healthcare Accounting

    • Healthcare Financial Management

    • Hospital Pay for Performance
    • Healthcare Utilization and Costs

    • Medicaid/Uninsured/Safety Net (hospitals)

    • Quality/Quality Improvement/Performance Measures

    • Rural Health
    • Finance
    Christopher M. Shea, PhD
    • Adoption and Implementation of Innovations

    • Business Writing

    • Health Informatics

    • Health Care Organization and Delivery

    • Organizational Behavior and Change

    • Quality Improvement
    • Health Information Technology/Mobile Apps

    • Pharmacy-Related

    • Quality/Quality Improvement/Performance Measures

    • Rural Health
    • Implementation Science/Dissemination of Innovation

    • Mixed Methods

    • Organizational Development/Strategic Planning

    • Qualitative Research Skills
    Rebecca Slifkin, PhD
    • Access to care for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries

    • Critical access hospitals

    • Impact of ACA implementation

    • Medicaid managed care

    • Medicare reimbursement issues

    • Pharmacy and Medicare Part D

    • Public health departments

    • The 340B program
    • Health Insurance/Managed Care

    • HIV/AIDs (Ryan White Program)

    • Medicaid/Uninsured/Safety Net

    • Medicare Policy

    • Rural Health

    • Workforce
    • Program Evaluation

    • Public Policy/Legal Analysis
    Sally Stearns, PhD
    • Applied Statistical Methods

    • Cost-effectiveness Analysis

    • Health Service Reimbursement Systems

    • Use of Health Services at the End of Life
    • Aging, End of Life

    • Medicare Policy
    • Cost Benefit/Cost Effectiveness Analysis

    • Health Economics

    • Secondary Data Analysis (Large Datasets Analytics)
    Angela Stover, PhD
    • Cancer outcomes and care delivery

    • Cancer in older adults

    • Clinical benefits of using PRO measures (e.g., symptom questionnaires) during routine care delivery

    • Implementation science

    • Patient-reported outcomes (PROs)/health-related quality of life

    • Practice facilitation to help community practices implement PROs into routine care

    • Psychometrics

    • Quality measurement and improvement

    • Questionnaire design
    • Cancer

    • Quality/Quality Improvement/Performance Measures
    • Implementation Science/Dissemination of Innovation

    • Mixed Methods

    • Patient-Centered Outcomes

    • Psychometrics and Questionnaire/Survey Development

    • Qualitative Research Skills
    Melanie Studer, PhD
    • Healthcare Workforce

    • Health Insurance/Managed Care

    • Human Resources Development

    • Population Health/Public Health

    • Psychometrics and Questionnaire/Survey Development
    • Health Insurance/Managed Care

    • Human Resources Development

    • Population Health/Public Health

    • Workforce
    • Psychometrics and Questionnaire/Survey Development
    Sean Sylvia, PhD
    • Cost Effectiveness Analysis

    • Early Childhood Development

    • Econometrics

    • Health Economics

    • Impact Evaluation

    • Nutrition

    • Performance-based Contracts

    • Quality of Care
    • Global Health

    • Healthcare Utilization and Costs

    • Health Insurance/Managed Care

    • Human Resources Development

    • Population Health/Public Health

    • Rural Health

    • Women and Children's Health

    • Cost Benefit/Cost Effectiveness Analysis

    • Health Economics

    • Program Evaluation

    • Randomized Control Trials/Experiments
    Justin Trogdon, PhD
    • Cancer outcomes research
    • Cost effectiveness analysis

    • Cost of illness

    • Econometrics

    • Health economics
    • Cancer

    • Healthcare Utilization and Costs
    • Cost Benefit/Cost Effectiveness Analysis

    • Health Economics

    • Patient-Centered Outcomes

    • Secondary Data Analysis (Large Datasets Analytics)

    • Systems Science
    Karl Umble, PhD
    • Evidence-based public health

    • Public health leadership

    • Public health practice
    • Human Resources Development

    • Leadership Development
    • Mixed Methods

    • Program Evaluation

    • Qualitative Research Skills
    Karen Volmar, JD, MPH FACHE
    • Health policy implementation and development
    • Program implementation and evaluation
    • Performance Measures
    • Program Evaluation

    • Public Policy/Legal Analysis
    Morris Weinberger, PhD
    • Health Services Research

    • Patient-centered Outcomes Research

    • Pharmaceutical Care

    • Quality of Care
    • Healthcare Utilization and Costs

    • Pharmacy-Related

    • Quality/Quality Improvement/Performance Measures

    • Veterans/Military
    • Patient-Centered Outcomes

    • Randomized Control Trials/Experiments
    Stephanie B. Wheeler, PhD
    • Cancer

    • Comparative effectiveness research

    • Cost-effectiveness in evidence-based medicine

    • Elimination of health disparities, both internationally and domestically

    • Health outcomes measurement

    • Medical decision making

    • Sexual/reproductive health

    • Social epidemiology

    • Use of mathematical modeling and systems thinking to address complex health services questions

    • Women's health
    • Cancer

    • Disparities/Social Determinants of Health

    • Healthcare Utilization and Costs

    • Health Information Technology/Mobile Apps

    • Health Insurance/Managed Care

    • Medicaid/Uninsured/Safety Net

    • Population Health/Public Health

    • Quality/Quality Improvement/Performance Measures

    • Rural Health

    • Women and Children's Health
    • Cost Benefit/Cost Effectiveness Analysis

    • Decision Sciences

    • Geographic Analysis (GIS)

    • Mixed Methods

    • Operations Research

    • Patient-Centered Outcomes

    • Qualitative Research Skills

    • Secondary Data Analysis (Large Datasets Analytics)

    • Systems Science
    Ciara Zachary, MPH, PhD
    • Health policy research and policy advocacy for underserved populations
    • Healthcare Utilization and Costs

    • Health Insurance/Managed Care
    • Public Health Systems Strengthening

    • Public Policy Analysis
    RELATED PAGES
    CONTACT INFORMATION
    BSPH, MSPH and Resident MHA:
    Academic Coordinator: Yolonda N. Childs

    Doctoral and Executive MHA:
    Academic Coordinator: Kim Sieler

    Assistant to Chair: Stephanie Forman
    Looking for someone else?

    Mailing Address
    135 Dauer Drive
    1101 McGavran-Greenberg Hall, CB #7411
    Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7411

    Health Policy and Management Events

    March 26
    12:00 pm
    2:00 pm
    HPM PhD Dissertation Defense: Prajwol Nepal
    April 2
    5:30 pm
    6:30 pm
    Health Policy and Management Information Session