WASHINGTON – Dr. Robert Jesse, Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Health at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), accepted an appointment to the first Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute’s Board of Governors.
“Instead of asking simply what works, we will be determining what works best,” Jesse said. “This is important work as it will help standardize American health care toward the best practices in the medical field and we should see better efficiency as result.”
The board, created by the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, is charged with identifying comparative effectiveness research (CER) priorities and establishing a research agenda. CER studies are head-to-head trials that compare different clinical practices and therapies to see how they stack up against each other for treating a defined patient population. The studies are unlike most clinical trials conducted in the United States, which examine only whether a drug or other medical approach works better than an inert placebo alternative.
As the VA Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Health, Jesse leads clinical policies and programs for the Nation’s largest integrated health care system. Jesse also serves as a Professor of Internal Medicine and Cardiology at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. He has extensive experience in comparative effectiveness, cardiology, cancer and biochemical research. Previously, he was the Chief Consultant for Medical Surgical Services and VA’s National Program Director for Cardiology in VA’s Office of Patient Care Services where he was instrumental in implementing broad reforms in the delivery of specialty, sub-specialty and emergency care that have significantly improved the quality of care provided across the VA health care system.
“Robert Jesse is the right pick for this board as they navigate new waters in American health care,” said VA Under Secretary for Health Dr. Robert A. Petzel. “For years, Veterans throughout the U.S. have had the fortune of Dr. Jesse’s intense passion for medical perfection and professionalism. I am pleased that the entire Nation will now benefit from his expertise.”
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