Richard Kronick Elected to Institute of Medicine

Article Content

Richard Kronick, PhD, a health policy expert and faculty member at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, has been elected to the prestigious Institute of Medicine, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences and widely regarded as one of the nation’s most respected scientific societies.

Richard Kronick, PhD, newly elected to IOM.

Kronick, a professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, is among 70 newly elected members and 10 foreign associates announced by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) today.

He joins 46 other UC San Diego faculty members, current and emeritus, who are IOM members.

“For more than twenty years, Dr. Kronick has played a leading role in health care reform,” said Bess H. Marcus, PhD, chair of the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine and senior associate dean for public health. “His election to the IOM recognizes his contributions to making health insurance available to all Americans.”

Kronick’s expertise is in understanding how market forces – pricing, competition and regulations, for example – affect the quality and accessibility of health care in the United States, particularly among the most vulnerable segments of the population, such as children, seniors and the poor.

Although Kronick has spent most of his career at UC San Diego, he is currently on leave serving as director of the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a position he accepted in 2013. The agency’s mission is to help provide all Americans with access to high-quality, safe and affordable health care.

Established in 1970, the IOM provides scientific advice to Congress and federal agencies, as well as public and non-governmental organizations, on the nation’s most pressing health and medicine topics. Members are unpaid. Some of the IOM’s recent work has looked at strategies for improving care for people nearing the end of life and protecting youth from bullying.