Fields of Interest
Research Interests: health screening programs; health care of the elderly; methods of cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analysis; health expenditure growth; international comparisons of healthcare financing and delivery; evaluation of new healthcare technologies; improving processes for making medical decisions
Alan Garber is the founding director of both the Center for Health Policy (CHP) and the Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research (PCOR) at Stanford University, where he is the Henry J. Kaiser Jr., Professor; a professor of medicine; and professor, by courtesy, of economics and of health research and policy. His research focuses on methods for improving healthcare delivery and financing—particularly for the elderly—in settings of limited resources. He has developed methods for determining the cost-effectiveness of health interventions, and he studies ways to structure financial and organizational incentives to ensure that cost-effective care is delivered. In addition, his research explores how clinical practice patterns and healthcare market characteristics influence technology adoption, health expenditures and health outcomes in the United States and other countries. He is principal investigator of the Center on Advancing Decision Making in Aging and the Center on the Demography and Economics of Health and Aging, multidisciplinary research efforts both based at Stanford University. He also leads the Global Healthcare Productivity project, which includes collaborators from 19 nations.
Garber is a staff physician at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, associate director of the VA Center for Health Care Evaluation, and research associate and director of the health care program of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He chairs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Medicare Coverage Advisory Committee and serves on the senior advisory board of the Gates Global Health Policy Research Network. He is a member of the national Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association Medical Advisory Panel, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Advisory Council on Aging (under the National Institutes of Health). He has served as a consultant to the Institute of Medicine, the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, and the Clinical Efficacy Assessment Project of the American College of Physicians, and has also served as chair of the Medical and Surgical Procedures Panel of the Medicare Coverage Advisory Committee.
Garber has received numerous honors and awards, including the Young Investigator Award of the Association for Health Services Research (now AcademyHealth) and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation's Faculty Scholarship in General Internal Medicine. He received an AB, MS and PhD—all in economics—from Harvard University, and an MD from the Stanford School of Medicine. He completed a residency in medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
