David Owen Meltzer (born 1964) is a Professor of Medicine at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

. He holds faculty appointments in the Department of Medicine, Department of Economics and the

Harris School of Public Policy Studies The University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, also referred to as "Harris Public Policy," is the public policy school of the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is located on the University's main campus in H ...

. He is Chief of the Section of Hospital Medicine at the University of Chicago Medicine, and is the Director of the Center for Health and the Social Sciences (CHeSS), as well as the Director of the Urban Health Lab in Chicago, IL. In 2015 he was appointed a member of the faculty for the forthcoming

Barack Obama Presidential Center The Barack Obama Presidential Center is a planned architectural project in Chicago to commemorate the presidency of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States. The center will include a museum and library and is headed by the nonprofi ...

which will be located in Chicago's South Side. Meltzer was elected to the

Institute of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, E ...

(IOM) in 2015 and has served on several committees, including the Committee for Organ Procurement and Transplantation Policy. He is also a member of the Methodology Committee for the

Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) is a United States-based non-profit institute created through the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. It is a government-sponsored organization charged with funding comparative ...

(PCORI). Finally, he serves on the 2nd U.S. Panel on Cost-effectiveness in Health and Medicine.

Education

David Meltzer attended elementary school and high school at the University of Chicago Lab School in Chicago, IL. He went to college at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in New Haven, CT and double-majored in Economics and Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. After college he matriculated to the medical scientist training program at the University of Chicago where he earned an M.D. from the

Pritzker School of Medicine The Pritzker School of Medicine is the Doctor of Medicine, M.D.-granting unit of the Biological Sciences Division of the University of Chicago. It is located on the university's main campus in the historic Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighbo ...

as well as a Ph.D. in Economics. He developed his dissertation on the "Mortality Decline, the Demographic Transition, and Economic Growth" under the mentorship of Nobel-winning economist

Gary Becker Gary Stanley Becker (; December 2, 1930 – May 3, 2014) was an American economist who received the 1992 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. He was a professor of economics and sociology at the University of Chicago, and was a leader of ...

as well as

Sherwin Rosen Sherwin Rosen (September 29, 1938 – March 17, 2001) was an American labor economist. He had ties with many American universities and academic institutions including the University of Chicago, the University of Rochester, Stanford University a ...

. Upon graduating from University of Chicago in 1992 he entered a residency program in Internal Medicine at

Brigham and Women's Hospital Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) is the second largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and the largest hospital in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Along with Massachusetts Gener ...

(Harvard Medical School) in Boston, MA, where he simultaneously served as a Faculty Research Fellow at the

National Bureau of Economic Research The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is an American private nonprofit research organization "committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic c ...

Career

He returned to the University of Chicago as a member of the faculty in 1996. He has amounted a number of important contributions in the areas of medicine and health economics.

Health economics

As a health economist, Meltzer has made major contributions to the fields of medical

Cost-effectiveness analysis Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) is a form of economic analysis that compares the relative costs and outcomes (effects) of different courses of action. Cost-effectiveness analysis is distinct from cost–benefit analysis, which assigns a monetar ...

and value of information analysis. His seminal paper about accounting for future costs which appeared in the ''Journal of Health Economics'' argued for including both direct and indirect medical costs related to chronic illness in both the numerator and denominator components of cost-effectiveness. He has also systematized the use of value of information analysis to prioritize research funding by subject area.

Hospital medicine

He is the founding Chief of the Section of Hospital Medicine at University of Chicago Medicine, which is a division in the Department of Medicine which staffs hospitalist physicians. It is one of the oldest and largest such divisions among academic medical centers in the country. Early in its conception, he began a multi-institutional clinical trial known as the Hospitalist Study. Today it is the largest collection of data on performance of

Hospital medicine Hospital medicine is a medical specialty that exists in some countries as a branch of family medicine or internal medicine, dealing with the care of acutely ill hospitalized patients. Physicians whose primary professional focus is caring for hos ...

, which has shown improvements in care as a result of hospitalist intervention. More recently, Meltzer received a prestigious Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovations (CMMI) award to study the Implications of a "Comprehensive Care Program" in which hospitalists physicians and advanced-practice providers follow-up with hospitalized patients in the home healthcare setting to reduce rehospitalization. For his work in this field he received the Society of Hospital Medicine's Award for Excellence in Research. Other notable research studies where Meltzer is involved are the Oral Health Study and the CAPriCORN Project.

Personal

Meltzer resides in Chicago with his wife Dr. Vineet Arora, daughter Sonia, and son Aarin. bv

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meltzer, David O. 1964 births Living people American people of German descent University of Chicago faculty University of Chicago Laboratory Schools alumni Yale University alumni Pritzker School of Medicine alumni University of Chicago alumni Members of the National Academy of Medicine