Joachim O. Hero

Joachim O. Hero is an associate policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. He applies frameworks and methods in quantitative survey research, systematic literature review, and policy analysis to study topics in health care and public health. In health care his research has covered issues in health insurance, patient decision making, patient-centered outcomes, quality of care, implementation science, health disparities, and the role of politics in health care. His current projects include those for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation investigating quality of care and patient navigation services in the Medicare program, and projects for the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute investigating the effectiveness of implementation strategies for evidence based practice.  On topics in public health, he has led numerous systematic reviews of the evidence on topics ranging from the harms and prevention of family and interpersonal violence, sexual assault in the military, and adverse childhood experiences.

Before joining RAND, Hero was a Research Fellow at Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare Institute, where he studied health care decision-making on the individual insurance market. He worked as a senior policy fellow at Connecticut Voices for Children, a state-focused policy research organization, where he advocated for policy in service of low-income children and their families. Hero received his Ph.D. in health policy from Harvard University and his M.P.H. in health policy from Yale University. He also has a B.A. from the University of Michigan, where he majored in political science.