News Releases
January 8, 2002
ASHINGTON, D.C.—Richard Sorian, currently a senior researcher at Georgetown University’s Institute for Health Care Research and Policy, will join the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) on Feb. 1 as director of public affairs and senior researcher. In his dual role, Sorian will help further HSC’s mission to provide timely, relevant and understandable information to policy makers about the nation’s changing health system.
At Georgetown since 1998, Sorian’s research interests include access to care, communication of health policy research to policy makers and the public, HIV/AIDS policy and health care quality improvement.
"Richard is a terrific fit because of his strong policy, research and communications background," said Paul B. Ginsburg, Ph.D., president of HSC, a nonpartisan policy research organization funded solely by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "I can’t think of anyone better able to bridge the gap that sometimes exists between the worlds of health services research and policy."
In 1997-98, Sorian served as deputy director of the President’s Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry, where he led efforts to develop a patients’ bill of rights. From 1993 to 1997, he served as a senior adviser in the office of Health and Human Services’ Secretary Donna Shalala and in a similar capacity in the White House Office of National AIDS Policy.
From 1980 to 1993, Sorian was an award-winning health policy journalist, serving as editor of Medicine & Health, a nationally recognized newsletter covering U.S. health policy development, and as the founding editor of the Journal of American Health Policy. He is the author of three books: A Bitter Pill: Tough Choices in America’s Health Policy (McGraw-Hill, 1989); The Health Care 500: A Complete Guide to the Most Influential Health Policy Makers in the U.S. (Faulkner and Gray, 1991); and A New Deal for American Health Care (Faulkner & Gray, 1993).
Sorian received a joint undergraduate degree in political science and journalism from The George Washington University and held a journalism fellowship for advanced studies in public health at the Harvard School of Public Health.