The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality lost a leader, colleague, and friend on March 10, 2002, with the passing of Director John M. Eisenberg, M.D., M.B.A. He passed away peacefully at home after a year-long illness caused by a brain tumor. Dr. Eisenberg was AHRQ's Director from 1997 to 2002.
A highly respected national leader in health care, Dr. Eisenberg's career was dedicated to ensuring that health care is based on a strong foundation of research and that the services provided reflect the needs and perspectives of patients. As Director of AHRQ, Dr. Eisenberg spearheaded the efforts of the Federal Government to reduce medical errors and improve patient safety in American health care.
Dr. Eisenberg also worked to increase research in areas that have been relatively neglected in the past, especially improving health care quality, health care disparities, and translating evidence-based medicine into improved health care.
A devoted husband and father, Dr. Eisenberg also was a friend, teacher, and mentor to many of this Nation's current and future leaders in health care as well as to his colleagues at AHRQ.
Before his appointment at AHRQ, Dr. Eisenberg was Chairman of the Department of Medicine and Physician-in-Chief at Georgetown University. Previously, he was Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. From 1986 through 1995, Dr. Eisenberg was a founding Commissioner of the Congressional Physician Payment Review Commission, serving as its Chairman from 1993 to 1995. Dr. Eisenberg also was a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Eisenberg was born in Atlanta, GA, in 1946. He was a magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University (1968) and the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (1972). After his residency in internal medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, he was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar and earned a Master of Business Administration degree at the Wharton School with distinction.