Burwell names new AHRQ director

Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell has named Andrew Bindman, M.D., director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality effective May 2. A primary care physician who has practiced, taught and conducted research at San Francisco General Hospital, Bindman recently served as a professor of medicine, epidemiology and biostatistics and affiliated faculty member for the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco, where he led research focused on improving the care of vulnerable populations and a state-university partnership with California’s Medicaid program. Bindman also is a senior associate editor for Health Services Research, a journal published by the AHA’s Health Research & Educational Trust affiliate. “As AHRQ Director, Dr. Bindman will drive the Agency’s three core missions of producing research and evidence to improve the quality and safety of health care and the functioning of the health care system, producing tools and training materials to make sure that evidence is understood and used, and investing in data and measures used by providers, patients and policy makers,” Burwell said.