Fellowship / Fellows

Lisa I. Iezzoni

  • 2022–2023
  • Biological Sciences
  • Sally Starling Seaver Fellow
  • Harvard Medical School
Lisa Iezzoni in wheelchair riding past Byerly Hall in Radcliffe Yard.
Photo by Lou Jones

This information is accurate as of the fellowship year indicated for each fellow.

Lisa I. Iezzoni is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, based at the Health Policy Research Center and the Mongan Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital. For 25 years, her research has focused on improving the lived experiences, healthcare quality, and health equity of adults with disability, particularly mobility disability. 

Iezzoni’s fellowship project will examine a 1992–1996 Massachusetts Medicaid demonstration, the Community Medical Alliance (CMA), which provided in-home medical and supportive services to Medicaid’s costliest beneficiaries: people with severe physical disability or late-stage AIDS. Diverse healthcare professionals—including physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants—provided these in-home services; a 1994 external evaluation found that CMA had engendered loyalty and goodwill from its participants. This project will use transcripts from 85 interviews Iezzoni conducted, including with CMA staff and patients, to identify lessons for future efforts to support people with disability or complex health needs in their homes, providing services that empower them, support their autonomy, and reflect the human rights perspective of independent living principles. 

Iezzoni obtained her MD and MSc in health policy and management from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health, respectively. Her early career focused on risk adjustment methods and assessing quality of care. Her most recent book is Making Their Days Happen: Paid Personal Assistance Services Supporting People with Disability Living in Their Homes and Communities (Temple University Press, 2021). Iezzoni is a member of the National Academy of Medicine in the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Medicine Is Failing Disabled Patients. Meet the Doctors Pushing for Change (Science Friday, 12/16/22)

These Doctors Admit They Don’t Want Patients with Disabilities (New York Times, 10/19/22)

Some Doctors Are Reluctant to Care for Patients with Disabilities, Study Finds (Boston Globe, 10/6/22)

Our 2023–2024 Fellows

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