Harkness Project Title: Enhancing Priority Decision-Making in Comparative Effectiveness Research

Placement: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Mentors: Carolyn Clancy, M.D., Director, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Jean Slutsky, PA, Director, Center for Outcomes and Evidence, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Co-mentor: Alan Garber, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Stanford University 

Biography at time of Harkness Fellowship: Adam Elshaug, Ph.D., a 2010-11 Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice, is Hanson Fellow at Adelaide Health Technology Assessment (AHTA) and senior research fellow/senior lecturer in public health at The University of Adelaide. Elshaug has focused his research in the area of refining use of low-value health services; evidentiary, clinical and policy barriers to reform and implementation. Elshaug collaborates and consults with government health agencies (federal and provincial) in Australia and internationally (Spain, U.K., Canada) to advance policy reform in this area. Elshaug is currently working with the Australian government to design and implement a formal disinvestment policy agenda within Medicare. Elshaug serves as an Associate Editor for the journal BMC Health Services Research and has published in journals such as the BMJ, Quality and Safety in Health Care, and Medical Journal of Australia. He is chief investigator on two large disinvestment research grants, is recipient of numerous awards as a new or emerging researcher, and has received over 60 invitations to address conferences as well as government, academic, insurance and health technology assessment groups internationally. Elshaug holds a Ph.D. and M.P.H. from The University of Adelaide.

Career Activity Since Fellowship

• Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Sidney Sax Public Health Fellow, Harvard School of Public Health, 2011

Current Position: Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Sidney Sax Public Health Fellow, Harvard School of Public Health (Updated July 2011)

Email: adam.elshaug@adelaide.edu.au

Harkness Related Publication

Elshaug AG and Garber AM. How CER Could Pay for Itself - Insights from Vertebral Fracture Treatments. New England Journal of Medicine, 2011 April 14 364;15: 1390-93.

Elshaug AG, Bessen T, Moss JR, Hiller JE. "Addressing “waste” in diagnostic imaging: some implications of comparative effectiveness research." J Am Coll Radiol. 2010 Aug;7(8):603-13.