Johns Hopkins revolutionized medical training in America by establishing the first scientific, hospital-based School of Medicine in 1893.

History was made again in 1916, when the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health (now the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) was established as the first American school of its kind.

Today, the School of Public Health is the largest in the world and is consistently recognized as the best in the United States. These twin pillars of healthcare excellence are situated in close proximity to The Johns Hopkins Hospital, recognized by U.S. News & World Report as the best hospital in America. The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions have helped transform patient care and public health around the world.


 
   
 
HOME     Meet the ACG Team


Meet the ACG Team . . . The ACG System has the distinction of being developed, tested, and supported by a world-renowned academic and medical research institution, the Johns Hopkins University. The institution’s goal is to promote equitable, effective and efficient healthcare around the globe. The dissemination of ACG technology is a part of this strategy. The ACG research and development team is based at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and has been performing risk measurement and case-mix categorization research for more than 25 years. Johns Hopkins has an unwavering commitment to the ongoing development of the ACG System and its dissemination to both private sector and government users.

The ACG team is characterized by excellence in both research and practice. Key team members include:


ACG Team Members:

Chad Abrams, MA
David Bodycombe, ScD
Christopher Forrest, MD, PhD
Karen Kinder, PhD
Anne Millman, MS
Thomas Richards, MS
Barbara Starfield, MD, MPH
Jonathan Weiner, DrPH
Klaus Lemke, PhD

Barbara Starfield, MD, MPH: Dr. Starfield is University Distinguished Professor with appointments in the Department of Health Policy and Management and Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University Schools of Public Health and Medicine. She is also the director of the Johns Hopkins University Primary Care Policy Center. Dr. Starfield developed the original concept that underpin ACGs and she is the co-developer of the ACG System. She is a principal member of the ACG R&D team.

She has been instrumental in leading projects to develop important methodological tools, including, in addition to the ACG System, the Primary Care Assessment Tool and the CHIP tools (to assess adolescent and child health status). Her work thus focuses on quality of care, health status assessment, primary care evaluation, and equity in health. Dr. Starfield’s overriding concerns are understanding the impact of health services on health, especially with regard to the relative contributions of primary care and specialty care on reducing inequities in health. Her focus is both on clinical care and on services to populations as well as the inter-relationships between the two.

Dr. Starfield was the co-founder and first President of the International Society for Equity in Health, a scientific society devoted to contributing knowledge to assist in the furtherance of equity in the distribution of health. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, a member of the Institute of Medicine and has been on its governing council, as well as on the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, and many other government and professional committees and groups She received her BA degree from Swarthmore College, her MD degree from the State University of New York (Health Sciences Center in Brooklyn), and her MPH degree from the Johns Hopkins University.

Click here to view Dr. Starfield's faculty page. 

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Jonathan P. Weiner, DrPH: Dr. Weiner is the co-developer of the original ACG system (along with Dr. Starfield) and is the leader of the ACG R&D team. He is a Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, with a joint appointment at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Weiner is an internationally known health services researcher, health policy analyst, and lecturer in the area of health care organization and financing. His specific areas of expertise include: primary/ambulatory care, risk adjustment/ case-mix, quality of care, health informatics, workforce planning, and international health systems.

At the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Dr. Weiner is a member of the School’s governing board, as the past president of the Faculty Senate. He is also Director of the AHRQ funded PhD training program in health services research, the Deputy Director of the Health Services R&D Center, and the Chair of technology transfer activities.

Dr. Weiner holds a doctorate of public health from the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. He also holds a Master’s in Health Administration from the University of Massachusetts and a B.A. in Human Biology from the University of Pennsylvania. He received an Atlantic Fellowship in Public Policy from the British Government in 1999.

Click here to view Dr. Weiner's faculty page. 

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Christopher B. Forrest, MD, PhD: Dr. Forrest the principal investigator of a study called "Health Pathways to Student Success," at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP.) His research focuses on understanding how health develops over a child's life span and evaluating the role that health services play in improving the health of specific populations. In addition is a principal faculty member of the ACG R&D team.

Prior to working at CHOP, Dr. Forrest was an Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management, in the division of Health Services Research, at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  He held a joint appointment in the Department of Pediatrics in the School of Medicine. 

Dr. Forrest has conducted numerous studies on the effectiveness and efficiency of primary care, the interactions between generalists and specialists, primary care gatekeeping, development and validation of health status measures for children, and, more broadly, the field of child health services and outcomes research.  Dr. Forrest is a principal faculty member of the ACG R&D team. He provides clinical, statistical, and methodological input into the ongoing development of the ACG case-mix system.  He has a special interest in using case-mix tools to describe and predict the health status of populations.  His current research activities in the risk adjustment field center on predictive modeling applications of the ACG system and the interface between financial and clinical forecasts.

Dr. Forrest received his BA and MD degrees at Boston University as part of a joint degree program.  He was trained in Pediatrics at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where he also served as a chief resident and a staff pediatrician.  He completed a PhD in Health Services Research at Johns Hopkins University under the guidance of Dr. Barbara Starfield. 

Click here to view Dr. Forrest's faculty page. 

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David Bodycombe, ScD: Since 2002, Dr. Bodycombe has provided operational leadership for the ACG System team. His role on the ACG System covers three key areas: (1) strategic planning and business management, (2) education and outreach through presentations and the preparation of articles for both professional and peer-reviewed journals, and (3) conduct and support of research related to risk adjustment and the impact of co-morbidity on the management of patient care. Dr. Bodycombe’s current focus is on refinements to the ACG Predictive Model that can be used to prospectively identify cohorts of service eligibles who are at high risk of using extraordinary health care resources.

Prior to joining the JHU faculty, Dr. Bodycombe was the Director of Operational Analytics at Premier Inc., a major group purchasing and performance improvement company that touches approximately 1,600 not-for-profit hospitals nationwide, where he guided the integration of performance measurement in Premier Inc.’s new Clinical Performance Initiatives (CPIs).

Dr. Bodycombe holds a ScD in Health Policy and Management and baccalaureate degree in biology from the Johns Hopkins University, and a MSc in Biostatistics from Georgetown University.

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Chad Abrams, MA, ACG Program Manager: Mr. Abrams has been a member of the ACG Team since 1994.  Today his primary responsibilities include managing the administrative and research activities of the ACG research and development team. He also serves as a liaison to DST ’s Healthcare Group, the University’s corporate partner for the development and commercial marketing of the ACG Case-Mix System software, and as a consultant to the software's myriad academic users. Mr. Abrams has extensive programming experience with SAS, AUTOGRP, and PC-Group software and is an author of several academic articles concerning the application of ACGs. 

Prior to joining the Hopkins staff Mr. Abrams worked at the Urban Institute in Washington DC.  Mr. Abrams has a Masters of Arts degree in Economics from the University of California at Davis and received his baccalaureate from the College of William and Mary. 

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Klaus Lemke, PhD, MSc, Statistician and Senior Programmer/Analyst: Dr. Lemke has been a member of the ACG System’s team since 1998.  His primary expertise is in the development, management and analysis of health services data with an emphasis on applying risk-adjustment methodologies.  Dr. Lemke is a SAS Certified Professional with extensive experience in the analysis of large administrative databases.  His prior experience includes work as a Research Statistician for the Maryland Health Care Commission. 

Dr. Lemke received a Ph.D. degree in Statistics and Industrial Engineering with a concentration in Operations Research from Iowa State University in 1992.  He also holds an M.Sc. degree in Statistics from the University of Georgia.  Dr. Lemke has co-authored several research articles that required in-depth knowledge of the ACG Case-Mix System.

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Thomas Richards, MS, Computer Systems Manager: Mr. Richards has been with the ACG System team since 1989. An electrical engineer by training, Mr. Richards designed and programmed all command line versions of the ACG software, including Windows, all UNIX variants, and the assembly language MVS version.  Mr. Richards provides technical support to the ACG team on the development of data bases used for further research and development of the ACG products. Mr. Richards also created SKYTALE, HIPAA compliant software for encrypting/de-encrypting patient identifiers on claim level data. He was the chief technical architect for the Sentinel Centers Network database and has spoken at conferences on the use of ACGs with data from federally funded community health centers.

Mr. Richards holds a MSEE in Electrical Engineering and a BEE in Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University and a BS in Applied Mathematics from the George Washington University.

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Karen Kinder, PhD , Director of European Operations: As Director of ACG European Operations, Dr. Kinder promotes the numerous applications of the ACG System throughout Europe and supports those users in its implementation. She oversees the general operations, strategic planning, market identification and expansion, as well as client services activities.

Dr. Kinder received her doctorate from the Department of Health Policy and Management at Johns Hopkins University in 2000, where she first became involved in the ACG project in 1992. She also holds a Masters in Business Administration degree from the University of Maryland.

Dr. Kinder has been living in Europe for the past 12 years, where she has gained in-depth knowledge of European health systems through various research projects and academic assignments.

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