Our Project Team
Mission Statement
The Johns Hopkins Drug Access and Affordability Initiative focuses on developing bipartisan policy recommendations to address the costs of pharmaceuticals in the United States. Our proposals attempt to balance the need for innovation, the need to improve patients’ access to medications, and the need to reduce overall medical costs to federal and state governments and other payers in our health care system.
Gerard Anderson, PhD
Dr. Anderson is a Professor of Health Policy and Management and Professor of International Health at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School Public Health, Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Hospital Finance and Management. His work encompasses studies of chronic conditions, comparative insurance systems in developing countries, medical education, health care payment reform, and technology diffusion. He has directed reviews of health systems for the World Bank and USAID in multiple countries. He has authored two books on health care payment policy, published over 250 peer reviewed articles, testified in Congress over 40 times as an individual witness, and serves on multiple editorial committees. Prior to his arrival at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Anderson held various positions in the Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he helped to develop Medicare prospective payment legislation.
Caleb Alexander, MD
Dr. Alexander is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where he serves as founding Co-Director of the Center for Drug Safety and Effectiveness and Principal Investigator of the Johns Hopkins-FDA Center of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation (JH-CERSI). He is a practicing general internist and pharmacoepidemiologist and is internationally recognized for his research examining prescription drug utilization, safety and effectiveness. The author of over 200 scientific articles and book chapters, he has published regularly in leading scientific journals, serves on several editorial and advisory boards and is a frequent speaker on pharmaceutical utilization and policy. In addition to expertise conducting survey-based investigations, Dr. Alexander also has extensive experience with the analysis of secondary data sources including administrative and pharmacy claims and large national surveys. Dr. Alexander received his B.A. cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, an MD from Case Western Reserve University, and a Master of Science from the University of Chicago.
Ge Bai, PhD, CPA
Dr. Bai is an Associate Professor of Accounting at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. She is an expert on health care reimbursement, cost management, and pharmaceutical supply chain. Dr. Bai frequently publishes in leading medical and health policy journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, JAMA Internal Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, and Health Affairs. Her work has been widely featured in Atlantic, CBS, CNN, Forbes, Fox News, Los Angeles Times, NBC, New York Times, NPR, The Guardian, U.S. News and World Report, Washington Post, and other media and used as testimony before the Congress. Dr. Bai received her PhD from Michigan State University.
Jeromie Ballreich, PhD
Dr. Ballreich is an Assistant Scientist and Director of the Master of Health Sciences in Health Economics program at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He recently received his PhD in Health Economics from JHSPH with a thesis in “Price Discrimination in the US Cancer Drug Market.” He previously received a Master in Health Economics also from JHSPH and a Bachelors in Mathematics and Economics from Lafayette College. Besides serving as a Director of Master’s program at JHSPH, he currently works on two major research and initiatives: the Johns Hopkins Drug Access and Affordability Initiative, and Major Extremity Trauma Research Consortium (METRC). These initiatives have him pursuing his research interests including pharmaceutical pricing, U.S. health policy, economic evaluations, and traumatic injured populations. He has collaborated with scholars across disciplines, and his peer-reviewed work has been published in New England Journal of Medicine, American Journal of Managed Care, and other academic journals. He has been an invited workshop participant and presenter at the National Academy of Medicine and the International Society of Pharmacoeconmics and Outcomes Research annual meeting.
Jeremy A. Greene, MD, PhD
Dr. Greene is an Associate Professor of the History of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His area of clinical expertise includes internal medicine. Dr. Greene serves as the Elizabeth Treide and A. McGehee Harvey Chair in the History of Medicine. Dr. Greene’s research interests include the history of therapeutics, especially pharmaceuticals. He also practices internal medicine at the East Baltimore Medical Center with admitting privileges to the Johns Hopkins University Hospital. Dr. Greene earned his MD and PhD from Harvard University. He completed his residency at Brigham & Women’s Hospital. He serves on the Johns Hopkins University Press Faculty Editorial Board. His book "Prescribing by Numbers" was recognized with a Rachel Carson Prize in 2009.
Celia Proctor, PharmD, MBA
Dr. Proctor is a pharmacist and the Assistant Director for Health System Formulary Management and Integration for the Johns Hopkins Health System. In her role she is focused on integration of hospital formularies into one health system formulary as a method to improve quality of patient care, improve efficiency and reduce cost. Dr. Proctor’s recent work has focused on addressing the rising cost of prescription medications, with a focus on limited distribution strategies. From 2016-17, she served as the President for the Maryland Society Health System Pharmacy. She received her Doctor of Pharmacy from Harding University College of Pharmacy, her M.B.A from the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, and completed her Health System Pharmacy Administration Residency Program at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Aditi P. Sen, PhD
Dr. Sen is a Health Economist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research addresses the potential of innovative payment and delivery models, as well as insurance design, to improve the quality and value of health care. Specifically, she is interested in how varying financial, behavioral and organizational incentives impact provider behaviors, including the “disadoption” of low-value services, prescription of high-price drugs and provision of mental health services. In addition, her research seeks to apply insights from behavioral economics to understand provider and consumer behavior. From 2015-16, she was a Health and Aging Policy Fellow in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She also served for a year on the staff of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers. Dr. Sen received her BA from Yale University and her PhD in health economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Jodi Beth Segal, MD
Dr. Segal is a Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Her research interests include developing methodology to use observational data to understand the use of new drugs, particularly drugs for treatment of diabetes, blood disorders, and osteoporosis. She is an experienced clinical epidemiologist and health services researcher with skills in applying advanced methods for evidence-based review and meta-analysis, and in collaboration with colleagues in biostatistics, has developed new methodologies for observational research (using propensity scores to adjust for covariates which change over time) and methods to account for competing risks and heterogeneity of treatment effects in analyses. Dr. Segal is a practicing internist and she received her MD from the University of Pittsburgh and her MPH from Johns Hopkins University.
Joshua M. Sharfstein, MD
Dr. Sharfstein is the Associate Dean for Public Health Practice and Training at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Sharfstein also holds a faculty appointment in the Department of Health Policy and Management. Dr. Sharfstein was appointed by Governor Martin O’Malley as Secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in January 2011. As Secretary of DHMH, Dr. Sharfstein led efforts to modernize Maryland’s all-payer system for hospital payment. In March 2009, President Obama appointed Dr. Sharfstein to serve as the Principal Deputy Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the agency’s second highest-ranking position. From December 2005 through March 2009, Dr. Sharfstein served as the Commissioner of Health for the City of Baltimore, Maryland. He began working on health and social policy matters as an advisor to longtime California Congressman Henry A. Waxman, where he was responsible for projects related to public health. Dr. Sharfstein also serves as a member of the editorial board at the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Dr. Sharfstein received his MD from Harvard Medical School.
Kenneth Shermock, PharmD, PhD
Dr. Shermock is Director of the Center for Medication Safety and Quality in the Department of Pharmacy at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Associate Director of the Center for Drug Safety and Effectiveness at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Shermock is experienced in applied health services and pharmacoepidemiology research and has over 60 peer-reviewed publications. He was a Fulbright Scholar in 2015 at the University of Helsinki, where he has an appointment as Adjunct Professor (Docent). Dr. Shermock also sits of the Editorial Advisory Board for the American Journal of Health System Pharmacy. He earned his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Rutgers University College of Pharmacy and his PhD degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Mariana P. Socal, MD, PhD
Dr. Socal is an Assistant Scientist in the Department of Health Policy and Management. Her main research interests are access and appropriateness of pharmaceutical treatments for aging and chronically ill populations. Dr. Socal worked for several years advising formulary decisions for high-cost medicines in Brazil. During that period, she also worked alongside local state attorneys in responding to legal claims for access to medicines. Dr. Socal is a physician with training in clinical neurology. She holds a Master’s of Public Policy from Princeton University and a PhD in Health Systems from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Antonio J. Trujillo, PhD
Dr. Trujillo is an Associate Professor in the Department of International Health with expertise in health economics, economics of aging, and applied econometrics. His main areas of interest include: i) Designing systems to identify individuals with high risk factors for chronic conditions; ii) Studying the use of economic incentives to motivate individuals with chronic conditions to engage in self-management; iii) Validating the role of clinical guidelines in reducing medical costs of chronic conditions; and iv) Studying the causal links between chronic conditions and labor force participation, income and retirement. He has studied the role of cognitive and non-cognitive skills on preventive behavior of patients with chronic conditions. His goal is to incorporate individual information on personality in the design of public health programs to increase treatment adherence among individuals with diabetes and hypertension. Currently, Dr. Trujillo is exploring how an economic view of fairness can inform drug regulation to help promote price transparency and prevent price gouging. Dr. Trujillo is the Co-Director of the Master of Health Science (MHS) in Health Economics degree program. He teaches an advanced econometrics course on program impact evaluation using observational data and a course on behavioral economics and public health. Dr. Trujillo received his MPP from Columbia University and his PhD from the University of North Carolina
AFFILIATED PROJECT MEMBERS
Michelle M. Mello, PhD, JD
Dr. Mello is a leading empirical health law scholar whose research is focused on understanding the effects of law and regulation on health care delivery and population health outcomes. She is the author of more than 150 articles and book chapters on the medical malpractice system, medical errors and patient safety, research ethics, regulation of pharmaceuticals, legal interventions to combat obesity and noncommunicable disease, and other topics. Her investigations into the dynamics of medical malpractice litigation, the effects of medical liability reforms, the ability of hospitals to shift costs of medical errors to others, and allocating responsibility for medical errors between hospital systems and individual physicians have been particularly impactful. Her publications appear in medical, health policy, and law journals, and she is a frequent contributor to the New England Journal of Medicine.
Rena M. Conti, PhD
Dr. Conti is an Associate Professor of Health Policy and Economics in the Department of Pediatrics, section of hematology/oncology, and the Department of Public Health Studies at the University of Chicago. Dr. Conti is a 2006 graduate of the Harvard University Interfaculty Initiative in health policy and an elected member of the Conference on Research on Income and Wealth. She currently serves on the Government Affairs committee for the American Society of Clinical Oncology. She is an expert on the financing, regulation and organization of medical care, with an emphasis on biopharmaceutical markets and oncology practice.
Michael DiStefano
Michael DiStefano is working on his PhD in Bioethics and Health Policy in the Department of Health Policy and Management. His research interests include priority setting and resource allocation, ethical issues related to the measurement of health, and the ethics of surveillance and influence in health (from mobile health to health incentives programs). His research explores the ethics of using mobile health technologies to enhance treatment adherence.
