Andrew Bindman named new AHRQ director

Andrew Bindman, MD, has been named director of the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), replacing Sharon B. Arnold, PhD, who has served as AHRQ’s Acting Director since the departure of Richard Kronick, PhD.

“As AHRQ Director, Dr. Bindman will drive the Agency’s three core missions of producing research and evidence to improve the quality and safety of health care and the functioning of the health care system, producing tools, and training materials to make sure that evidence is understood and used, and investing in data and measures used by providers, patients, and policymakers,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell.

Bindman has been practicing, teaching and conducting health sciences research at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center for more than 30 years, as well as being a professor an affiliated faculty member within the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco.

Bindman has gained national recognition by leading the development of an academic division focused on improving the care of distressed populations and a state-university partnership with California’s Medicaid program that promotes translating research into policy.