In May 2006, AcademyHealth's board of directors appointed a panel of esteemed researchers to serve on the first AcademyHealth Methods Council. Comprised of experts in the variety of fields that represent health services research and health policy, its purpose is to assist AcademyHealth in developing strategies for professional development in Health Services Research methods that take into account member needs, as well as the Council's view of future needs in the areas of training in best practices and the development of new methods.

View the new Methods Council product Suggested Guidelines for HSR Methods Reviews. Released in April 2010, this guide provides recommendations for reviewers when addressing apparent methodological flaws in articles or other products, including examples of both substandard and constructive reviews.

The Methods Council is appointed for a term of three years. All content included in this Web site has been reviewed by a subset of Methods Council members.

Below is a list of the current Methods Council members and their bios.

Methods Council Members  

Kelly Devers, Ph.D., Chair
Senior Fellow
Health Policy Center
Urban Institute

James F. Burgess, Jr., Ph.D., Vice Chair
Professor, Health Policy and Management
Boston University School of Public Health

Timothy Beebe, Ph.D., M.A.
Professor and Chair
Division of Health Care Policy and Research
Department of Health Sciences Research
Mayo Clinic

Linda Bilheimer, Ph.D.
Assistant Director
Health and Human Resources Division
Congressional Budget Office

Randall Brown, Ph.D.
Vice President and  Director
Health Care Research
Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.

Bryan Dowd, Ph.D.
Professor
Division of Health Policy and Management
School of Public Health
University of Minnesota

Mark Helfand, M.D., M.S., M.P.H.
Staff Physician; Professor of Medicine
Portland VA Medical Center; 
Oregon Health and Science University

Emmett Keeler, Ph.D.
Senior Mathematician
The Health Program
RAND

Bryan Luce, Ph.D.
Chief Science Officer
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute

Diane Martin, Ph.D.
Global Head Epidemiology
Drug Safety and Epidemiology
Novartis Pharmaceuticals

Timothy McBride, Ph.D.
Professor
Brown School
Washington University in St. Louis

Barbara McNeil, M.D., Ph.D.
Ridley Watts Professor and Head
Department of Health Care Policy
Harvard Medical School

Brian Mittman, Ph.D.
Senior Advisor; Senior Scientist
VA Center for Implementation Practice and Research Support;
Department of Research and Evaluation
Kaiser Permanente Southern California

John O’Donnell, Ph.D., M.A.
Vice President
Global Health Economics and Outcomes Research
Bristol-Myers Squibb 

A. James O'Malley, Ph.D.
Professor
Biostatistics, Clinical Practice, and Health Policy
Dartmouth College

Lucy Savitz, Ph.D., M.B.A. 
Director, Research and Education
Institute for Healthcare Delivery and Research
Intermountain Healthcare

Jean Slutsky, P.A., M.S.P.H.
Chief Engagement and Dissemination Officer
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute

Shoshanna Sofaer, Dr. P.H.
Director of Strategic Research Planning
Health and Social Development
American Institutes for Research

Michael Stoto, Ph.D.
Professor of Health Systems Administration and Population Health
Georgetown University School of Nursing & Health Studies

Peter Veazie, Ph.D., M.S.
Associate Professor
Division of Health Policy and Outcomes Research
Department of Public Health Sciences
University of Rochester Medical Center

Last Update: August 31, 2015