Lisa Iezzoni, MD, MSc
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Bio
Lisa I. Iezzoni, MD, MSc is Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and based at the Health Policy Research Center, Mongan Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital. From 1990-2006, she was co-director of research in the Division of General Medicine and Primary Care at Beth Israel Hospital/Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Dr. Iezzoni has conducted numerous studies for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, National Institutes of Health, the Medicare agency, and private foundations.
Her early career focused on risk adjustment methods for costs and clinical outcomes and assessing quality of care; she wrote and edited Risk Adjustment for Measuring Health Care Outcomes, now in its fourth edition. Since 1998, her research has focused on improving the lived experiences and health care quality of adults with disability. Her book When Walking Fails was published in 2003, and More Than Ramps: A Guide to Improving Health Care Quality and Access for People with Disabilities, co-authored with Bonnie L. O’Day, appeared in 2006. Her most recent book is Making Their Days Happen: Paid Personal Assistance Services Supporting People with Disability Living in Their Homes and Communities (2022).
Dr. Iezzoni spends considerable volunteer time advocating for persons with disability, serving on the Board of the Boston Center for Independent Living since 2005. Dr. Iezzoni is a member of the National Academy of Medicine in the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Current Projects
National Institutes of Health
Exploring the Timeliness of Cancer Diagnoses in Persons with Significant Physical Disability
Goals: This exploratory study will examine whether aspects of person’s physical disability might delay the diagnosis of colorectal, prostate, or ovarian cancer or non-Hodgkin lymphoma, because cancer symptoms that patients report are erroneously attributed to their underlying disabling condition.
Role: Principal Investigator
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Addressing Future Home-Based and Personal Care Needs for a Growing and Diverse Population
Goals: The proposed project will address this impending crisis through a review of policy and practice models, analyses of workforce trends and outcomes, and preliminary exploration of client and direct-care worker experiences and preferences.
Role: Principal Investigator
National Institutes of Health
Surveying Physicians to Understand Health Care Disparities Affecting Persons with Disability and Identity Approaches to Improve their Care
Goals: To understand factors that contribute to health care disparities for persons with disability from the perspective of physicians practicing in outpatient settings and to use this understanding to develop a toolkit of practical suggestions for improving care.
Role: Principal Investigator
Publications
Dr. Iezzoni on PubMed
Education
BA, Duke University
MSc, Harvard School of Public Health
MD, Harvard Medical School