Dr. Bruce Schackman Awarded Tenure
The Department of Public Health is delighted to announce that Bruce Schackman, PhD, Chief of the Division of Health Policy, has been granted tenure as Associate Professor of Public Health.
Dr. Schackman has devoted his career to economic evaluation of innovations in health care. He graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Business School, earning both degrees with distinction. He initially served as a leader in the pharmaceutical and medical device practice of McKinsey & Co. consulting, and was an advisor to the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. He was also a director of medical investments for a venture capital firm. Along the way, he became deeply concerned about the lack of evidence-based information driving business and societal decisions in health care, particularly about the value of new drugs and devices. His increasing interest in the potential of technology assessment and cost effectiveness analysis to inform these decisions, particularly with regard to the escalating HIV epidemic, led him to make a career shift. He returned to Harvard, where he earned his PhD in health policy with a concentration in decision sciences.
Dr. Schackman joined the faculty of the Weill Cornell Medical College Department of Public Health in 2001. His numerous and internationally influential research projects have focused on simulation modeling of comparative effectiveness and cost outcomes of treatment strategies in HIV, hepatitis C, and opioid dependence; economic analyses conducted alongside clinical trials under the auspices of the National Institutes of Health AIDS Clinical Trials Group and National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network; and implementation science research regarding budgetary and operational barriers to using evidence-based medical interventions. His studies have helped to inform who should be treated and when, what interventions to use, how to improve treatment adherence, and the rationale for expanding screening for infectious diseases.
His excellent track record and leadership skills led to his being appointed Chief of the Division of Health Policy in 2006. Since then he has recruited faculty, fellows, and staff with expertise in a variety of health policy methodologies and issues. He has defined, organized, and solidified the Division’s research and teaching agendas, increasing its contributions to health policy on the institutional, local, national, and international levels. He is an active teacher in the medical and graduate school and a mentor and teacher in Cornell’s NIH/Fogarty center program at GHESKIO in Haiti. He is an exceptionally strong mentor and consultant to many at Weill Cornell Medical College, including faculty and fellows in his division as well as in global health, geriatrics, orthopedics, and psychiatry.
Dr. Schackman is a national leader in the Society for Medical Decision Making. He has been an advisor to the Institute of Medicine and served on review committees for several Institutes of the National Institutes of Health (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases/AIDS Clinical Trials Group, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism). He has also advised the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the Ontario HIV Treatment Network.
We invite you to join the Department in congratulating Bruce on this well-deserved tenure award!
