Scholarship and Biography
Donald S. Shepard, Ph.D., is Professor at the Schneider Institutes for Health Policy at the Heller School, Brandeis University. Director of the Institutes' group on cost and value, he is a health economist concerned with maintaining and improving health the United States and globally. His major concentrations are cost and cost-effectiveness analysis in health, health financing, and performance incentives. He co-authored the paper that created the term QALY (for quality-adjusted life year), a central concept in cost-effectiveness analysis in health Substantive areas concern malaria, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, HIV/AIDS, dengue, lymphatic filariasis, vaccines, measurement of the quality of life, and control of mosquitoes, oral health, and technology assessment. He is Fellow of the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene, a peer reviewer of grant applications for the National Institutes of Health, and former Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Applied Public Policy.