Health Policy Center, independent research for better health policy: The Urban Institute

Kelly J. Devers, Ph.D. is a Senior Fellow in the Health Policy Center at the Urban Institute. She received her doctorate from Northwestern University and was a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy Research at the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco. Her main areas of expertise are provider payment and competition, the organization and delivery of care, and their impacts on access, cost, and quality.

Dr. Devers’ current research focuses on the implementation of national and state health policy reforms, particularly as they relate to patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs), accountable care organizations (ACOs), and related provider payment changes; hospitals’ and  medical groups’ efforts to improve quality and efficiency through the use of electronic health records (EHRs), process redesign techniques (e.g., Lean/Toyota Production Systems, Six Sigma), and learning collaboratives; and, efforts to improve the quality of cancer care in community hospital based cancer centers.

She currently serves as the Urban Institute’s project director for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) National Evaluation of CHIPRA Quality Demonstrations; the Office of National Coordinator’s (ONC) Global Assessment of HITECH programs; the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicaid EHR Incentive Program Technical Assistance Contract; and, the evaluation of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) pilot of a Community Cancer Centers Program (NCCCP), which is testing the concept of a national network to expand cancer research and deliver the latest, most advanced cancer care to more Americans in their home communities.

She has published widely in major journals of health services research and policy, while also acting as a peer reviewer for federal and foundation grants, serving on editorial boards, editing a book and special journal issue, speaking widely, and in 2008-09 advising the presidential transition team.

Prior to joining the Urban Institute, Dr. Devers was an Associate Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, and before her academic position, she worked at the Center for Studying Health System Change and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.