The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has announced the selection of this year's recipients of its Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research. Sixteen scholars affiliated with major universities across the country will receive awards of up to $335,000 to support 10 new research projects. The winning researchers will tackle major challenging policy issues facing America today, as well as wide-ranging concerns about the nation’s health and health care system. The award recipients are:

• Co-investigators Alan S. Gerber, Ph.D., Yale University, and Eric M. Patashnik, Ph.D., M.P.P, University of Virginia
• Co-investigators William K. Hallman, Ph.D., Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey,and Neal H. Hooker, Ph.D., Saint Joseph’s University
• Sherman A. James, Ph.D., Duke University
• Jason H. Karlawish, M.D., University of Pennsylvania
• Co-investigators Naa Oyo A. Kwate, Ph.D., and Ilan H. Meyer, Ph.D., both of ColumbiaUniversity
• Co-investigators Edward W. Maibach, Ph.D., M.P.H., George Mason University, and Matthew C. Nisbet, Ph.D., American University
• Co-investigators Alberto Palloni, Ph.D., Northwestern University, and Carolina Milesi, Ph.D., University of Chicago
• Co-investigators Richard M. Scheffler, Ph.D., and Stephen P. Hinshaw, Ph.D., both of University of California, Berkeley
• Gary A. Taubes, M.S.E., M.S., University of California, Berkeley
• Celeste Watkins-Hayes, Ph.D., Northwestern University

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, and public and social policy. A national advisory committee of distinguished experts from fields similar to those of the investigators reviews applications. Members of the 2008 national advisory committee (NAC) included:

• Paul D. Cleary, Ph.D., NAC Chair, Dean of Public Health; C.E.A. Winslow Professor and Chair, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Public Health
• David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P., Samuel O. Thier Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Director, Institute for Health Policy, Massachusetts General Hospital
• Lawrence Casalino, M.D., Ph.D., Chief, Division of Outcomes and Effectiveness Research, Department of Public Health, Weill Cornell Medical College
• Marilyn P. Chow, R.N., D.N.Sc., F.A.A.N., Vice President, Patient Care Services, Kaiser Permanente
• Susan Dentzer, Editor-in-Chief, Health Affairs
• Judy Feder, Ph.D., Professor, Georgetown Public Policy Institute, Georgetown University
• Bruce G. Link, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
• Catherine G. McLaughlin, Ph.D., Senior Fellow and Director of Health Research, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
• Mark A. Peterson, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Public Policy, School of Public Affairs, University of California, Los Angeles
• Jill B. Quadagno, Ph.D., Mildred and Claude Pepper Eminent Scholar, Pepper Institute on Aging & Public Policy, Florida State University
• Jeannette Rogowski, Ph.D., University Professor, Department of Health Systems and Policy, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
• Sara Rosenbaum, J.D., Harold and Jane Hirsh Professor of Health Law and Policy; Chair, Department of Health Policy, George Washington University
• Mark J. Schlesinger, Ph.D., Professor, Division of Health Policy and Administration; Fellow, Institution for Social and Policy Studies, Yale University School of Public Health
• Alvin R. Tarlov, M.D., Professor of Medicine, University of Chicago
• William A. Vega, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Family Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles
• Keith A. Wailoo, Ph.D., Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of History, Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

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 157 projects involving 202 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 stimulates thinking that is creative and crosses disciplinary boundaries in search of knowledge and solutions to vexing issues affecting health and health care in the United States," Mechanic says.

A brief description of each new investigator project follows.