Dr. Graham has served as Acting Deputy Director of AHRQ since December 2002. He began his service at the Agency in August 2001 as Director of the Center for Practice and Technology Assessment. Dr. Graham is a family physician who has served in a series of senior positions in both the private and public health care sectors since 1970.
From 1985 to 2000, he served as the Executive Vice President of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), which has approximately 97,000 members and is the largest physician organization in the Nation devoted solely to primary care education and practice. From August 2000 to August 2001, Dr. Graham spent a sabbatical year as Scholar-in-Residence in the AAFP's Policy Center in Washington, DC, which is named in his honor.
Between 1970 and 1985, Dr. Graham's primary professional activity was as a Commissioned Officer in the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS), where he held a variety of positions related to mental health, manpower, and health services. After 2 years on detail as a staff member of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee's health subcommittee, Dr. Graham returned to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 1980 and was subsequently named the first Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration and appointed an Assistant Surgeon General.
Throughout his career, Dr. Graham has written and spoken extensively about health care reform, Federal health workforce policy, and the organizational characteristics of effective health systems. Dr. Graham's contributions and expertise in health policy have been recognized by his election to the Institute of Medicine and his selection as Treasurer of the bipartisan Alliance of Health Reform.
Dr. Graham, a native of Kansas, is a graduate of Earlham College, Richmond, IN (1965), and the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Kansas City, Kansas (1970). He is married to former U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Jane Henney, and they reside in Bethesda, MD.
Current as of April 2003
Send Questions & Comments to: info@ahrq.gov
Internet Citation:
Biography: Robert Graham, M.D., Acting Deputy Director, AHRQ. April 2003. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/about/grahambio.htm
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