Neal Dickert MD, PhD, named the interim director of the Health Services Research Center

We are pleased to announce that, effective May 1, Neal Dickert MD, PhD will be the interim director of the Health Services Research (HSR) Center, a cooperative initiative of the departments of medicine and surgery, Emory University School of Medicine and Woodruff Health Sciences Center (WHSC) created in 2018. Dr. Dickert is currently associate director of the HSRC and will be stepping into the role of interim director after the departure of Rachel Patzer, PhD, MPH, who served as the inaugural director.

Dr. Dickert is an associate professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology. He also holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health, is a Senior Faculty Fellow at the Emory Center for Ethics, and is a member of the Emory Clinical Cardiovascular Research Institute. Dr. Dickert is a board-certified cardiologist whose clinical work is primarily in cardiac critical care and echocardiography. He completed medical school at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a PhD in health policy and bioethics and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He completed an internal medicine residency at Johns Hopkins and a cardiology fellowship at Emory. Dr. Dickert joined the faculty at Emory in 2012.

Dr. Dickert’s research focuses on ethics and decision-making, primarily in the context of clinical care and clinical research in cardiovascular disease. In particular, he is actively engaged in research projects addressing challenges related to operationalizing shared decision-making and cost communication and the conduct of clinical research in acute care contexts where informed consent is either impossible or very difficult. Dr. Dickert is also interested in and has published work regarding research recruitment broadly, informed consent, and diversity and representativeness in clinical trials.

As the interim director of the HSR Center, Dr. Dickert will be entrusted with the continued advancement of health services research in the combined center, as well as nurturing collaborative efforts in health services research across the SOM, WHSC, RSPH, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Grady Memorial Hospital, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the Atlanta VA Medical Center, and other related Emory departments and schools. The interim director’s overarching mandate in this regard will be to lead the expansion, implementation, and promotion of health services research that is designed to improve patient outcomes and value, optimize patient-centeredness, enhance access, and minimize disparities within the Emory system. In this respect, the Center and its affiliated faculty seek to impact care locally and to grow Emory’s reputation as a paradigm for clinical/research institutions nationwide.

To learn more about Dr. Dickert, listen to the most recent two-part edition of the DOM’s Research Ride podcast, where he and ride leader Charlie Searles, MD, discusses Dr. Dickert’s research on shared decision making between clinicians and their patients and how clinicians communicate out-of-pocket expenses (financial toxicity) of medicines to their patients. Dr. Dickert also shares the songs that he wants to contribute to the Research Ride playlist and how you can follow him on the Peloton leaderboard.