Li-Wu Chen, Ph.D., looks at the big picture.
Trained as a health economist, he has studied the access, cost and quality of health services for 13 years.
In doing so, he has helped reshape health care delivery, as well as the practice of public health.
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Li-Wu Chen, Ph.D. |
Dr. Chen is particularly interested in studies related to the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of health care, health insurance, health care utilization, access to health care and public health systems.
“There also is a significant gap in the knowledge about how to better organize, finance and deliver public health services within various public health systems,” he said.
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His work affects all Nebraskans.
Collaborating with the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, he received funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to establish a statewide Public Health Practice-Based Research Network. As co-principal investigator, Dr. Chen engages the public health practice community to identify, conduct and translate relevant research.
He also is director of a project that has published health economic profiles for all of Nebraska’s 93 counties. In turn, local communities use the reports to seek grants, bolster federally qualified health center applications, develop their hospital’s strategic plans and aid in the rural health clinic certification process.
His other current projects include studies that:
- Examine the effectiveness and challenges of implementing quality improvement strategies for local health departments in Nebraska;
- Investigate the measurements of return on investment analysis for public health programs;
- Assess the workforce capacity, competencies and training needs in local health departments; and
- Describe the characteristics of the uninsured and underinsured populations in Nebraska.
“It’s most rewarding when my research work — or the work of our department’s faculty, staff and students — makes a difference in better informing policy makers and/or practitioners about how to improve the delivery of health care as well as the practice of public health,” Dr. Chen said.