Daily Debriefing
Jonathan Skinner, the John Sloan Dickey Center Third Century professor in economics, was among the 65 new members of the Institute of Medicine announced on Monday. The IOM is an internationally recognized resource for independent research on human health issues. IOM President Harvey V. Fineberg said Skinner was picked during "a highly selective process," and has been granted "one of the highest honors in the fields of medicine and health." Skinner's work, done alongside Dartmouth Medical School professors Elliot Fisher and John E. Wennberg, has studied the nature of unequal health care in the United States. Skinner's research has concluded that regional differences can account for as much as $125,000 per person in health care expenditures, and that hospital quality tends to be worse when dealing with African-American patients.