David O. Meltzer, M.D., Ph.D.

David O. Meltzer, M.D., Ph.D. is an associate professor and Chief of the Section of Hospital Medicine in the Department of Medicine and an associated faculty member of the Harris School and the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago. Meltzer's research explores problems in health economics and public policy. A major area of Meltzer's research examines the theoretical foundations of medical cost-effectiveness analysis, including issues such as accounting for future costs due to the extension of life, the value of research, and the effects of patient choice and preferences on the value of medical interventions, which he has examined in the context of diabetes and prostate cancer. Another major area of study examines the effects of medical specialization on the cost and quality of care, especially in teaching hospitals. Dr. Meltzer is currently principal investigator for a randomized trial examining the use of doctors who specialize in inpatient care ("hospitalists") compared to traditional academic physicians in six academic medical centers. Other work examines the role of mortality decline in the economic growth and the demographic transition of developing countries; the effects of prospective payment systems on the cost and quality of care, and the effects of FDA regulation on innovation in the pharmaceutical industry.

Meltzer received his M.D. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago and completed his residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Meltzer directs the Center for Health and Social Sciences (CHeSS) at the University of Chicago and the AHRQ-funded Hospital Medicine and Economic Center for Education and Research in Therapeutics. He is also co-director of the Program in Outcomes Research Training and the M.D./Ph.D. Program in the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago and serves on the faculty of the Graduate Program in Health Administration and Policy, the Population Research Center and the Center on Aging.

Meltzer is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Lee Lusted Prize of the Society for Medical Decision Making, the Health Care Research Award of the National Institute for Health Care Management, the John M. Olin Faculty Fellowship, the Robert Wood Johnson Generalist Physician Award, the Eugene Garfield Economic Impact Award from Research America, and the Leaders in General Medicine Award from the Midwest Society for General Internal Medicine. He is also a faculty research fellow for the National Bureau of Economic Research and has served on a panel that is examining the "Future of Medicare" for the National Academy of Social Insurance, on panels examining U.S. organ allocation policy and cord blood stem cell banking for the Institute of Medicine, and on a Technical Advisory Panel on the financial viability of Medicare for the Department of Health and Human Services.