GHRI Founder Dr. Ed Wagner wins highest honor for research
April 28, 2011
Dr. Ed Wagner, founder of Group Health Research Institute (GHRI), is the 2011 recipient of the William B. Graham Prize for Health Services Research — the highest distinction health services researchers can achieve.
Dr. Wagner will receive the award June 25 in Charleston, S.C., at the annual meeting of the Association of University Programs in Health Administration. He is recognized for his significant contributions to studying how best provide health care.
"The prior recipients of the William B. Graham Prize for Health Services Research include the most distinguished scientists in our field," Dr. Wagner said. "I am honored and humbled to be included with them, and grateful to the many research and clinical colleagues who have contributed so much to our work. For American health care to provide excellent quality care at a sustainable cost, it must have a robust primary care sector able to successfully manage complex, chronically ill patients in the community. I have been blessed to work with dedicated, creative clinicians who are showing that it can be done."
Dr. Wagner founded GHRI in 1983. It is a non-proprietary, public-domain research institution within the Group Health system. As director until 1998, with commitment to scientific inquiry, he led GHRI's mission to improve health care through leading-edge research, innovation, and dissemination.
In 1992, he established GHRI's MacColl Institute for Healthcare Innovation, which he still directs. His team developed the Chronic Care Model, an evidence-based framework that seeks to improve the delivery of safe, effective, and collaborative care to patients.
He is also the principal investigator for the Cancer Research Network, a National Cancer Institute-funded consortium of 14 health-plan-based research organizations in the HMO Research Network.
Dr. Wagner received his MPH from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Public Health, and his MD from the State University of New York at Buffalo, School of Medicine.
A professor of health services at the University of Washington School of Public Health, Dr. Wagner is best known for his work in chronic illness management, cancer care, and aging and geriatric populations. Recognized as a champion of patient-centered care, Dr. Wagner has received numerous honors and awards, and has written more than 250 publications.
"Dr. Wagner provides innovation and excellence in everything he does," said Kyle Grazier, DrPH, University of Michigan School of Public Health professor, and Graham Prize Selection Committee chair. "Through his Chronic Care Model, Dr. Wagner is still transforming the role of chronic illness care in health and health services delivery. His extraordinary leadership is evident in the research and policy centers he has created throughout the past 30 years to study evidence-based management and clinical practice, to teach future clinicians and investigators, and to implement integrated health care across the life span. Dr. Wagner truly deserves this year's prestigious William B. Graham Prize for Health Services Research."
