Dr. Allison Lipitz-Snyderman is a health services researcher in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK).  She is a member of the MSK Center for Health Policy and Outcomes.  Her research focuses on improving the quality, safety, and outcomes of cancer care and reducing unwarranted variation between providers.  She has methodological expertise in the analysis of large-scale datasets including Medicare claims, commercial claims, and cancer registry data.  Currently, she is leading studies to assess the extent of variation between hospitals in their cancer care delivery and outcomes using claims.  Dr. Lipitz-Snyderman is also involved in research efforts to develop and validate new cancer-related quality measures.

Previously, she led the initial development and testing of an oncology-specific screening tool to help identify potentially preventable harms due to medical care from patient medical records.  She is collaborating on follow-up studies to evaluate whether this screening tool can be adapted for use in claims for large-scale assessments of patient harm.  She also led a qualitative study focused on obtaining physicians’ perceptions of barriers to direct physician-to-physician communication about diagnostic delays. During her doctoral studies at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, she used Medicare claims to evaluate a multi-component initiative to reduce bloodstream infections, the Keystone Intensive Care Unit Project, along the outcomes of mortality and length of stay.  Her research has been supported by the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute for Healthcare Management Foundation, AARP/NQF/OptumLabs, and the United Hospital Fund, among others.