BCBSM - Dartmouth Atlas - About the Authors

BCBSM - Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care in MI

John E. Wennberg, MD, MPH, is the director of the Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences at the Dartmouth Medical School. He has been a professor in the Department of Community and Family Medicine since 1980 and in the Department of Medicine since 1989, and currently holds the Peggy Y. Thomson Chair for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences.

Dr. John Wennberg is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science and the Johns Hopkins University Society of Scholars. He has received a number of awards, including the Association for Health Services Research's Distinguished Investigator Award, the Baxter Foundation's Health Services Research Prize and the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award in Clinical Medicine.

Dr. John Wennberg is a graduate of Stanford University and the McGill Medical School. His postgraduate training was in internal medicine and nephrology at Johns Hopkins, but he became interested in the application of epidemiological principles to the health care system while pursuing his master's degree in public health at Johns Hopkins.

He developed a strategy for studying the population-based rates of health resource allocation and utilization (small area analysis) with colleague Alan Gittelsohn. The subsequent studies have revealed variations in the rates of services among local and regional health care markets.

David Wennberg, MD, MPH, is the Director of the Division of Health Services Research at the Maine Medical Center and Senior Research Associate at the Maine Medical Assessment Foundation. He was graduated from McGill University Faculty of Medicine in 1987. His postgraduate education was in internal medicine at the Maine Medical Center. Following his residency, he was a fellow in general internal medicine at the Harvard Combined program and received an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health. His major research interest is the quality of care for cardiovascular services.

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NOTICE TO ATLAS READERS
While not giving answers, the atlas raises questions about health care service use that merit careful consideration. "High" rates of use are not necessarily bad and "low" volumes good (or vice versa). Our goal is to move toward rates that are consistent with high quality health care, which need to be determined with local clinical, community and patient discussion and dialogue.

The atlas is not a physician or hospital report card. When reviewing data, note that the Hospital Service Areas in the atlas were defined by the atlas author. They may differ significantly from what a hospital considers its market area.

Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care in Michigan
Foreword | Overview | Introduction | FAQ | Glossary
About the Authors | Atlas Order Form | BCBSM Home

Chapters
The Geography of Health Care in Michigan
Acute Care Hospital Resources and the Physician Workforce
Variations in Hospitalizations for Medical Conditions
The Surgical Treatment of Common Diseases
Coronary Artery Disease
The Intensity of Care in the Last Six Months of Life
Practice Variations and the Use of Prescription Drugs
Variations in Hospitalizations for Medical Conditions
The Problem of Unwanted Variations
Appendix on Methods

The Dartmouth Atlas of Healthcare in Michigan
� 2000 The Trustees of Dartmouth College

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