With the passage of comprehensive health reform, the United States must redouble efforts to address our most vexing health policy issues. The need for innovative, cross-cutting health policy research is more urgent than ever. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) recently announced the selection of this year’s recipients of the RWJF Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research - scholars who will tackle some of America’s most difficult health concerns and inform policy on these issues. The winning scholars, affiliated with major institutions across the country, will receive awards of up to $335,000 to support 10 innovative and cutting-edge research projects. The award recipients are:

• Co-investigators Joel T. Braslow, M.D., Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, and John S. Brekke, Ph.D., University of Southern California
• Cynthia A. Connolly, Ph.D., R.N., P.N.P., University of Pennsylvania
• Jennifer L. Hochschild, Ph.D., Harvard University
• James S. Jackson, Ph.D., University of Michigan
• Aaron S. Kesselheim, M.D., J.D., M.P.H., Harvard University and Brigham and Women’s Hospital
• Miriam J. Laugesen, Ph.D., Columbia University
• Co-investigators Jens Ludwig, Ph.D., University of Chicago, and Greg J. Duncan, Ph.D., University of California, Irvine
• S. V. Subramanian, Ph.D., M.Phil., Harvard University
• Co-investigators Jason Schnittker, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, and Christopher Uggen, Ph.D., University of Minnesota
• Co-investigators Robert L. Wears, M.D., University of Florida, and Kathleen M. Sutcliffe, Ph.D., University of Michigan

This prestigious and highly competitive funding program attracts investigators from a wide range of fields including medicine, nursing, public health, economics, sociology, political science, psychology, history, law, ethics, journalism, communications, public and social policy, and others. A national advisory committee of distinguished experts from fields similar to those of the investigators reviews applications and makes funding recommendations to the Foundation. The members of the 2009-2010 national advisory committee (NAC), which includes seven past Investigator Awardees, are:

• Paul D. Cleary, Ph.D., Yale University, NAC Chair
• Sheila Burke, R.N., M.P.A., Harvard University
• Lawrence Casalino, M.D., Ph.D., Weill Cornell Medical College, 1999 Awardee
• Susan Dentzer, Health Affairs
• Judy Feder, Ph.D., Georgetown University
• Bruce G. Link, Ph.D., Columbia University, 1995 Awardee
• Catherine G. McLaughlin, Ph.D., Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
• Mark A. Peterson, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 1994 Awardee
• Jill B. Quadagno, Ph.D., Florida State University, 1999 Awardee
• Jeannette Rogowski, Ph.D., University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
• Sara Rosenbaum, J.D., George Washington University, 2000 Awardee
• Mark J. Schlesinger, Ph.D., Yale University, 1993 Awardee
• Alvin R. Tarlov, M.D., University of Chicago (retired)
• William A. Vega, Ph.D., University of Southern California
• Keith A. Wailoo, Ph.D., Princeton University, 2001 Awardee

RWJF created the Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research program to support talented researchers throughout the stages of their careers whose cross-cutting and bold new ideas promise to contribute meaningfully to improving U.S. health policy. Funded projects produce enduring insights and sophisticated analyses of pressing problems, potential solutions for improving health and health care, and evidence that can inform policymakers, the media, and the public. Since 1992, the Foundation has supported 167 projects involving 216 investigators.

“Through the Investigators’ program, the Foundation invests in ideas and individuals – investments that pay off long after the research grants have ended,” said Lori Melichar, Ph.D., economist and senior program officer in Research and Evaluation at RWJF. “The books and articles resulting from Investigators’ research contribute to the public discourse in health policy. The program also provides the Investigators with opportunities to join the debate on health policy issues, and influence how policymakers think about the challenges of providing and financing health care and improving the health of the nation.”

David Mechanic, Ph.D., leads the RWJF Investigator Awards program, which is headquartered at the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. “This program supports thinking that is creative and crosses disciplinary boundaries in search of knowledge and solutions to emerging problems or vexing issues that are important for improving the nation’s health and health care,” Mechanic says.

A brief description of each new investigator project follows.