Patricia Herman is a senior behavioral scientist at RAND, a codirector of the RAND Research Across Complementary and Integrative Health Institutions (REACH) Center, and a professor of policy analysis at Pardee RAND Graduate School. Her research centers on health economics, innovative care models, and overall quality of life. Herman is an NCCIH-supported methodologist, resource economist, and licensed naturopathic doctor. For more than 40 years, Herman has conducted policy and cost-effectiveness analyses concerning water rights, waste recycling, energy and water conservation, and health care.
Her cost-effectiveness projects include: nonpharmacologic therapies for chronic low-back pain; yoga and mindfulness-based stress reduction for low-back pain; tailored navigation for colorectal cancer screening; drug treatment alternatives to prison; implementation support for evidence-based youth programs; and complementary therapies use in younger veterans with chronic pain.
Herman has written three books and taught more than 100 workshops on economic evaluation methods; published two systematic reviews of economic evaluations of complementary and integrative medicine; coauthored a commissioned paper on the economics of integrative medicine for the IOM's 2009 Summit on Integrative Medicine and the Health of the Public, and was an invited speaker on that topic at the 2018 National Academies Workshop on the Role of Nonpharmacological Approaches to Pain Management. Other projects include improving measurement of the impact of chronic pain, testing whether conjoint analysis improves behavioral health incorporation into primary care, and estimating the impacts of a statewide smoking ban.
Herman earned her N.D. from Bastyr University and her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona.
Ph.D. in psychology and research methods, University of Arizona; N.D. in naturopathic medicine, Bastyr University; M.S. in agricultural economics, Iowa State University
