CHP/PCOR
Stanford University
117 Encina Commons
Stanford, CA 94305-6019

garber@stanford.edu
(650) 723-0920 (voice)
(650) 724-5182 (fax)

Research Interests
health screening programs; health care of the elderly; methods of cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analysis; health expenditure growth; international comparisons of healthcare financing and delivery; evaluation of new healthcare technologies; improving processes for making medical decisions

Dr. Garber is the Henry J. Kaiser Jr. Professor at Stanford University, where he is also a Professor of Medicine, and Professor (by courtesy) of Economics, Health Research and Policy, and of Economics in the Graduate School of Business. He is also a Senior Fellow in the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies and in the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. He has been Director of both the University's Center for Health Policy and the Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research at the School of Medicine since their founding. Dr. Garber is a Staff Physician at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Associate Director of the VA Center for Health Care Evaluation, and Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).  He was the founding Director of the Health Care Program of the NBER, a position he held for 19 years.

He is a member of the national Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association Medical Advisory Panel and serves as their Scientific Adviser. He is also a member of the Board of Health Advisers to the Congressional Budget Office, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and of the Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy at the National Academies.  He has served as a member of the National Advisory Council on Aging at the National Institutes of Health, and as Chair of the Medicare Evidence Development and Coverage Advisory Committee at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Dr. Garber's research is directed toward methods for improving health care delivery and financing, particularly for the elderly, in settings of limited resources. He has developed methods for determining the cost-effectiveness of health interventions, and he studies comparative effectiveness of health interventions, along with ways to structure financial and organizational incentives to ensure that cost-effective care is delivered. In addition, his research explores how clinical practice patterns and health care market characteristics influence technology adoption, health expenditures, and health outcomes in the United States and in other countries.  He is Principal Investigator of The Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging, and the Center on Advancing Decision Making in Aging, which are both sponsored by the National Institute on Aging.

Dr. Garber is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Young Investigator Award of the Association for Health Services Research (now AcademyHealth), the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Faculty Scholarship in General Internal Medicine, and the Rock Carling Fellowship of the Nuffield Trust (U.K.).

After graduating from Harvard College summa cum laude, he received his PhD in economics from Harvard University and an MD with research honors from Stanford University.  He was trained in internal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

Other affiliations
VA Palo Alto Health Care System; AcademyHealth; American Society for Clinical Investigation; Institute of Medicine; Association of American Physicians; National Bureau of Economic Research; International Health Economics Association