Dr. Heather Taffet Gold's research focuses on identifying and evaluating the implications of variations in healthcare utilization, whether due to socioeconomic, racial/ethnic, physician, health status, or geographic differences. She also studies the adoption and diffusion of new medical technology. In her work, she seeks to determine how differences in care affect health and economic outcomes in order to provide the basis for new health care and clinical policies that encourage appropriate use of medical treatment and technology to save lives, improve quality of life, and efficiently and fairly allocate available resources. Dr. Gold uses a number of methodological tools, including econometric models that minimize selection bias in her evaluation of large, population-based databases to estimate treatment effects, and cost-effectiveness analyses to compare clinical and behavioral interventions. She also has used qualitative analysis to explore physician and patient experiences with adoption of new technology.

Dr. Gold's project, Treatment and Outcomes in Diabetic Breast Cancer Patients, will fill gaps in knowledge about co-management of diabetes and breast cancer. The goal is to identify whether there might be optimal areas of focus for developing materials, strategies, and interventions to improve care for multi-morbid patients, thereby reducing avoidable morbidity and mortality. This study will assess the effectiveness of various clinical co-management strategies. Finally, the proposed analyses can help to determine whether large claims databases provide sufficient detail to assess patient-care coordination on an individual and population basis, compared to richly detailed clinical information.