J. Michael McWilliams, MD, PhD, is an assistant professor of health care policy and of medicine at Harvard Medical School and an associate physician in the Division of General Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he practices general internal medicine and teaches medical residents.

Dr. McWilliams’s research focuses on access to care, quality of care, health care costs, and health disparities among aging adults with chronic conditions. In his recent work, he has studied the impact of Medicare coverage on the health of previously uninsured adults, the use of health services by previously uninsured Medicare beneficiaries, the effects of health insurance coverage on mortality among near-elderly adults, racial and ethnic trends in control of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and the effects of Medicare coverage on disparities in disease control.

Dr. McWilliams received his BS degree with highest distinction in biology as a Morehead Scholar from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, his MD degree magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School, and his PhD degree in health policy from Harvard University, with a concentration in evaluative sciences and statistics. He completed his residency and fellowship training in general internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and was an AHRQ postdoctoral fellow in health services research at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. McWilliams has received the Mack Lipkin, Sr. Associate Award and Best Published Research Paper of the Year Award from the Society of General Internal Medicine, the AcademyHealth Dissertation Award, and the NIH Health Disparities Loan Repayment Award.