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Eve A. Kerr, MD, MPH
VA HSR&D investigator, Eve A. Kerr, MD, MPH, Director of HSR&D’s Center for Clinical Management Research, has been elected as a member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM).
Dr. Kerr is recognized internationally for developing innovative, clinically meaningful methods to assess and improve quality of care, evaluating the influence of care processes on quality, and understanding the challenges of providing care to patients with multiple chronic conditions. For example, she was senior author on a landmark article, “The Quality of Health Care Delivered to Adults in the United States,” that has been cited more than 2,000 times and documents large deficits in U.S. quality of care that significantly influenced VA’s efforts to improve healthcare for Veterans. She also helped lead two major studies that demonstrated a significant VA quality advantage over community care, largely related to organizational changes and performance profiling (Kerr et al, 2004 and Asch et al, 2004).
Currently, Dr. Kerr is leading efforts to inform health system performance in setting priorities for decreasing low-value services. She has published several papers in the JAMA Internal Medicine “Less is More” series describing overuse of tests and treatments in VA and community care; for example, an article on cardiac testing before low-risk surgery showed low rates of overuse in VA. She also is conducting several studies on defining and decreasing low-value care, including one that focuses on identifying and implementing measures to stop or scale back use of unnecessary routine clinical services in VA, and another that examines how commitments to following Choosing Wisely® recommendations impact the use of targeted services, appropriateness of care, and clinician and patient experiences.
Dr. Kerr is a prolific author, with more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, many in top tier journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA. She is the Louis Newburgh Research Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan, immediate past-chair for the American College of Physicians’ Performance Measurement Committee, a steering committee member of Choosing Wisely® International, and an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. Her induction as a member of the NAM will take place in October, 2018.
The NAM was established in 1970 under the name Institute of Medicine (IOM) and is an independent organization of eminent professionals from diverse fields including health and medicine; the natural, social, and behavioral sciences; and beyond. The NAM has more than 2,000 members elected in recognition of professional achievement and commitment to volunteer service in activities of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The NAM elects no more than 70 regular members and 10 international members annually.
