Dear Colleague:

As a member of the AHRQ EHC National Partnership Network, we wanted to provide you an update on the AHRQ director.  

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced that Richard Kronick, Ph.D., will become the next Director of AHRQ upon Carolyn Clancy’s departure later this month. Dr. Kronick joined the Department in January 2010 as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, overseeing the Office of Health Policy.

In that role, he has conducted and coordinated research on policies relating to public health; health care delivery; health insurance; and health care financing programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, State Children’s Health Insurance Program, and private insurance coverage. His work, and that of the Office of Health Policy under his leadership, has been integral to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Additionally, his team has provided insight and information critical to our effort to improve the health of the nation.

Prior to joining HHS, Dr. Kronick conducted health policy research in academia as well as in federal and state government, including as Director of Policy and Reimbursement for the Medicaid Division of the Massachusetts Department of Public Welfare, and most recently, as a Professor and Chief of the Division of Health Care Sciences in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. “AHRQ has important work ahead, and I look forward to continuing to work with Dr. Kronick in this new role,” Secretary Sebelius said in a statement. We thank you for your continued collaboration.

AHRQ is building a national partnership network dedicated to promoting comparative effectiveness research, a type of patient-centered outcomes research,  in patient and professional communities across the United States. We invite you to explore partnering with us by contacting EHC_Outreach@ahrq.hhs.gov. As a partner, you will learn more about this research and have access to free materials and resources.AHRQ