2009 Cushing Orator

Uwe E. Reinhardt, PhD

Uwe E. Reinhardt, PhD, a native of Germany, has taught at Princeton University since 1968. He is currently the James Madison Professor of Political Economy, and professor of Economics and Public Affairs.

He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada in 1964, when he was also awarded the Governor General's Gold Medal as Most Distinguished Graduate of his class. He earned a PhD. in economics from Yale University in 1970. His doctoral dissertation, entitled Physician Productivity and Demand for Health Manpower, was subsequently published as a book.

In 1998, the Columbia University School of Nursing honored him with the Second Century Award for Excellence in Health Care. He has also received honorary doctorate degrees from the Medical College of Pennsylvania, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, City University of New York, and from the College of Optometry of the State University of New York.

In 1978, he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, serving on the Governing Council from 1979 to 1982. At the institute, he has served on a number of study panels, among them the Committee on the Implications of For-Profit Medicine.

Professor Reinhardt has served on a numerous governmental committees and commissions. From 1986 to 1995 he served three consecutive three-year terms as a commissioner on the Physician Payment Review Commission. Currently, he is a member of the Council on the Economic Impact of Health Reform. He is also on the Board of Advisors of the National Institute of Health-Care Management, a Washington based think tank devoted to issues in managed care.

In 1997, he joined the Pew Health Professions Commission and was appointed to the External Advisory Panel for Health, Nutrition and Population of The World Bank. In 1998, he was appointed as commissioner of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. Since then, he has served on the Board of Trustees of the Duke University Health System and chaired the Coordinating Committee of The Commonwealth Fund's International Program in Health Policy.

Professor Reinhardt has been or is a member of numerous editorial boards, among them the Journal of Health Economics, the Milbank Memorial Bank Quarterly, Health Affairs, The New England Journal of Medicine, and The Journal of the American Medical Association.