GAO Announces Chair and Vice Chair of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Board of Governors

WASHINGTON, DC (September 19, 2013) – Gene L. Dodaro, Comptroller General of the United States and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), today announced the appointment of Grayson Norquist, MD, as Chair of the Board of Governors for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), and the reappointment of Steven Lipstein, MHA, as Vice Chair. The appointments will be effective as of September 23, 2013.

“These two individuals have made significant contributions during the first years of PCORI’s formation and development,” Dodaro said. “They bring outstanding qualifications in the areas of leadership and consensus building that should serve the Institute well going forward.”

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 established PCORI as a nonprofit organization to assist patients, clinicians, purchasers, and policymakers in making informed health decisions by carrying out research projects that provide quality, relevant evidence on how diseases, disorders, and other health conditions can be effectively and appropriately prevented, diagnosed, treated, monitored, and managed.

The Act directs the Comptroller General to designate the Chair and Vice Chair of the Board every three years from among the members of the board. In September 2010, the Comptroller General made his first appointments to the PCORI Board of Governors, choosing 19 of its 21 members. In addition to these 19 members, the Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Director of the National Institutes of Health, or their designees, also serve on the PCORI Board.

Below are brief biographies of the Chair and Vice Chair. The official announcement of the appointments will be published in the Federal Register. For more information contact Mary Giffin on GAO's Health Care team at (202) 512-7114, or Chuck Young in GAO's Office of Public Affairs at (202) 512-4800, or visit the PCORI Governing Board web page: http://www.gao.gov/about/hcac/pcori_members.html

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Grayson Norquist, MD, MSPH, (Chair) has served on the PCORI Board of Governors for three years and has served as Chair of the PCORI Communications, Outreach and Engagement Committee. He is Professor and Chair, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) in Jackson, MS. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the American Psychiatric Foundation and of the American Psychiatric Association. Prior to his current position at UMMC, he served in a number of leadership positions at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), including Director of the Division of Services and Intervention Research, a division responsible for funding clinical, prevention, and services research at NIMH. He is on the editorial board of Psychiatric Services, served on the editorial board of the Archives of General Psychiatry and the Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics, and has received various national government and public awards, including the NIH Director’s Award, the NIH Special Service Award, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness Exemplary Psychiatrist Award. He received a BA from the University of Mississippi, an MD from UMMC and a master of science in public health from the UCLA School of Public Health. He completed his training in psychiatry at UCLA where he was also a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar. His research and community work focuses on improving the quality of mental health services provided to underserved populations.

Steven Lipstein, MHA, (Vice Chair) has served as the Vice Chair of PCORI Board of Governors for three years. He is President and Chief Executive Officer of BJC HealthCare, an organization with 13 hospitals and other health-service organizations that serve the greater St. Louis, southern Illinois and mid-Missouri regions. Prior to joining BJC in 1999, he served as Executive Vice President at the University of Chicago Hospitals and Health System and held executive positions in the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System. He serves on the St. Louis Regional Health Commission and on the board of the Missouri Hospital Association. At Washington University in St. Louis, Mr. Lipstein serves on the board of trustees and on the School of Medicine’s National Council, and is chair of the Institute for Public Health’s National Council. In addition, he serves on the Teach for America–St. Louis Regional Advisory Board and on the Board of Trustees at Emory University. He is a former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank. He received a BA from Emory University and a master of health administration from Duke University.