The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice

The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice contains six Centers, led by foremost experts in their fields and representing our key areas of focus and our initiatives for change. They are:

Center for Health Policy Research

Elliott S. Fisher, Director
David C. Goodman, Co-Director

Home of the Dartmouth Atlas Project, CHPR works to improve health and health care through research, evaluation and public reporting on the effectiveness of medical technologies and the performance of the U.S. health care delivery system, and through active engagement in policy debates and national and local reform initiatives.

Center for Informed Choice

E. Dale Collins, Director
Hilary Llewellyn-Thomas, Co-Director

Dedicated to making patients partners in care through shared decision making and informed choice (vs. informed consent.) The country’s preeminent research and education program for the rigorous study of patients’ health care decision making and the development and implementation of policy and practice-based solutions.

Center for Leadership and Improvement

Paul M. Batalden, Director

Fostering the development of people who will advance the measurement, organization, and improvement of patient care quality, safety, and value as part of the process of the ongoing reform of health care. Developing, constructing, implementing and evaluating models to improve health care and the delivery of care.

Center for Medicine and the Media

H. Gilbert Welch, Director
Steven Woloshin, Co-Directors


Helping the nation gain a more balanced view of medical care by cultivating “healthy skepticism” in journalists, policy-makers, and the public. Questioning the relentless expansion of medical care, disease definition, overmedicalization, and the exaggerated messages that often drive these trends.

Center for Aging Research

Steven J. Bartels, Director

Leading in health services research aimed at improving health and health care for older Americans. Advancing the use of decision science, decision support, and shared decisionmaking for older adults. Changing health care practice and policy to promote integrated and coordinated care, and mental and physical health promotion and self-management.

Center for Education

Gerald T. O'Connor, Director

Educating health care professionals and future health care leaders through a unique curriculum that goes beyond traditional MPH, MS, and PhD studies. Giving students not only the fundamentals of their field, but a broader vision of health and health care that allows them to apply an informed, critical view to feed positive changes in health policy and clinical practice.