Liliana E. Pezzin, PhD, JD

Dr. Liliana Pezzin an economist specialized in Econometrics, Applied Game Theory, and Public Finance, with a long-standing interest in issues related to healthcare organization & delivery, its measurement, antecedents, and consequences. A significant part of her work has focused on the economics of aging and disability, with a special focus on the interplay between public policy and family decisions regarding living and caregiving arrangements of older persons, a field that enabled me to explore, both theoretically and empirically, the notion of public policy to influence family dynamics and potentially overcome inefficiencies in the provision, cost, and quality of chronic and long-term care. Through a fascination with economics applied to health, she became interested in outcomes research, particularly the comparative effectiveness of alternative care settings and medical treatments, another area where choices are often the result of numerous individual and joint decisions by patients, families, and providers with different preferences facing different constraints. Understanding the relationship between healthcare organization, delivery, policies, and outcomes often requires the use of advanced methods of causal inference applied to carefully designed study experiments. Dr. Pezzin has leveraged policy experiments and used nationally representative surveys, observational data, and health insurance claims to examine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of healthcare services provided at different settings and/or under differing policy regimes. Her research portfolio, which has been funded by various institutes within the NIH, including the NCI, NIA, NHLBI, and NICHD, as well as the CDC, VA, and the American Cancer Society, also reflects her substantive interest in disparities research—be it age-, race/ethnicity- or socioeconomic-related. In addition to research, Dr. Pezzin serves as the Interim Director for the Division of Epidemiology and Social Sciences within the Institute for Health & Humanity, as scientific advisor for the Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin (AHW) Foundation, as Executive Director of the Collaborative for Health Delivery Science (CHDS) program, and as mentor to numerous medical and graduate students, residents, fellows, and junior clinical faculty.

Much of Dr. Pezzin’s research effort focuses on issues related to long-term care, aging and disability, with special emphasis on the interplay between public policy and family behavior. She recently concluded work as principal investigator on an NIA-funded grant examining the relationship between state long-term care policies and living and care arrangements of elderly persons, and as the co-principal investigator on another NIA-funded study developing game theoretical models of family long-term care decisions.

Her outcomes research portfolio includes analyses of the effects of patterns of breast cancer care on disease recurrence, mortality, quality of life and economic well-being; analyses of the relationship between guideline adherence, processes of care and outcomes in electrodiagnostic medicine; and two randomized controlled trials of behavioral interventions designed to (i) improve blood pressure control and (ii) self-management and reduce adverse events secondary to complex medication regimens among home health patients. Dr. Pezzin's research projects are funded by NCI, VA-HSR&D, NHLBI and AHRQ, respectively.