Eisenberg, John M.

John M. Eisenberg (1946–2002), an early leader in the Society for Medical Decision Making, was a general internist whose early grasp of the importance of economic and other nonmedical factors in clinical decision making fueled an exceptional career that included national leadership in medicine, medical decision making, health economics, public policy, and health services research. In addition to his own career accomplishments, Eisenberg was also renowned as one of the foremost leaders in general internal medicine and a lifelong mentor of students and professionals in multiple disciplines.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Eisenberg received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University (1968) and his medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (1972). He trained as an internist at the University of Pennsylvania and was one of the first cadres of Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars, which allowed him to receive a master of business administration degree in 1976 from Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. From 1978 to 1991, Eisenberg served as the chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, which he made one of the top divisions of this discipline in the nation. In 1991, he was one of the first general internists selected to chair a department of internal medicine, and he served in this capacity at Georgetown Medical School until 1997, when he became Administrator of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR), later known as the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). In this last position, he also served as assistant secretary for health.

In addition to numerous academic achievements, Eisenberg's expertise on the impact of financial incentives on physicians' decisions led to his serving as a member in and then chairing the Congressional Physician Payment Review Commission (PPRC) from 1986 to 1994. He was the first physician president of the Society for Medical Decision Making, and he also led the Society for General Internal Medicine, the Association for Health Services Research, and served on numerous editorial boards and federal peer review groups.

Eisenberg's scientific contributions were extensive and included a strong focus on multiple dimensions of clinical decision making, including diagnostic uncertainty, cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analysis, and sociological influences on physicians' decisions—such as the impact of the patient's race, ethnicity, and gender. His book Doctors' Decisions and the Cost of Medical Care was a seminal contribution to the fields of medical decision making and health economics.

In his final position, leading what is now the AHRQ, Eisenberg was preeminent in assessing healthcare quality and patient safety. His efforts in response to the national Institute of Medicine (IOM) report To Err Is Human resulted in AHRQ's becoming the world's leading supporter of research to ensure that healthcare is reliably and predictably safe.

Eisenberg often said that he took the greatest pride in the many individuals he had trained—from [Page 339]medical students to business students to residents, fellows and junior faculty members. The impact of his numerous contributions and his legacy is still unfolding.