Margo Edmunds
Encyclopedia
Margo Edmunds is an American health policy researcher
, strategy consultant
, educator, and writer
who began her clinical career in disease management
at Johns Hopkins Hospital
. Her recent work has focused on the use of health information technology
in healthcare reform and public health, including co-authoring Toward Health Information Liquidity, a Booz Allen Hamilton
white paper that explores the challenges and opportunities for electronic health information systems.
Formerly Vice President with The Lewin Group, Edmunds has held senior positions at the University of California, San Francisco
; Institute of Medicine
(IOM) of the National Academies; Children's Defense Fund (CDF
); and American Institutes for Research. At the IOM, she directed studies on health insurance
and access to care and provided testimony on children’s coverage to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners
.
In 2000, she and her team at CDF
released All Over the Map, a report on progress implementing the State Children's Health Insurance Program
. The report was used as a briefing and reference document for members of Congress and the Gore presidential campaign, and was widely covered by the media, including The New York Times
.
In 2000, she co-founded MediaVision USA, a strategic communications firm. She co-teaches a course on Emergency and Risk Communication. She and her MediaVision partner, Charles Fulwood
, collaborated on an online multimedia course on emergency preparedness communications for the Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health Preparedness
, as well as a primer for health professionals on strategic communications. and also made several presentations at state, regional, and national conferences on public health preparedness. From 1999 to 2006, Edmunds was a member of the teaching faculty at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
, where she introduced strategic communications and informatics to policy analysis and public health practice.
Edmunds received a PhD in human development
at The Pennsylvania State University, where she studied systems theory
, policy analysis
, and clinical psychology
. She completed clinical training at the Behavioral Medicine
and Biofeedback
Clinic at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
and is a Fellow and former member of the Board of Directors of the Society of Behavioral Medicine
. She chaired the Health IT Interest Group for AcademyHealth from 2007 to June 2010. She is also a member of the Public Policy Committee and the Public Health Informatics Workgroup of the American Medical Informatics Association
.
Researcher
A researcher is somebody who performs research, the search for knowledge or in general any systematic investigation to establish facts. Researchers can work in academic, industrial, government, or private institutions.-Examples of research institutions:...
, strategy consultant
Consultant
A consultant is a professional who provides professional or expert advice in a particular area such as management, accountancy, the environment, entertainment, technology, law , human resources, marketing, emergency management, food production, medicine, finance, life management, economics, public...
, educator, and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
who began her clinical career in disease management
Disease management (health)
Disease management is defined as "a system of coordinated health care interventions and communications for populations with conditions in which patient self-care efforts are significant." For people who can access health care practitioners or peer support it is the process whereby persons with...
at Johns Hopkins Hospital
Johns Hopkins Hospital
The Johns Hopkins Hospital is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, located in Baltimore, Maryland . It was founded using money from a bequest by philanthropist Johns Hopkins...
. Her recent work has focused on the use of health information technology
Health information technology
Health information technology provides the umbrella framework to describe the comprehensive management of health information across computerized systems and its secure exchange between consumers, providers, government and quality entities, and insurers...
in healthcare reform and public health, including co-authoring Toward Health Information Liquidity, a Booz Allen Hamilton
Booz Allen Hamilton
Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. , or more commonly Booz Allen, is an American public consulting firm headquartered in McLean, Fairfax County, Virginia, with 80 other offices throughout the United States. Ralph Shrader is its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. The firm was founded by Edwin Booz in...
white paper that explores the challenges and opportunities for electronic health information systems.
Formerly Vice President with The Lewin Group, Edmunds has held senior positions at the University of California, San Francisco
University of California, San Francisco
The University of California, San Francisco is one of the world's leading centers of health sciences research, patient care, and education. UCSF's medical, pharmacy, dentistry, nursing, and graduate schools are among the top health science professional schools in the world...
; Institute of Medicine
Institute of Medicine
The Institute of Medicine is a not-for-profit, non-governmental American organization founded in 1970, under the congressional charter of the National Academy of Sciences...
(IOM) of the National Academies; Children's Defense Fund (CDF
CDF
-Mathematics, science, and computers:* .cdf , the ANDI/netCDF mass spectrometry data interchange file format* Channel Definition Format, an XML standard* Charging Data Function, in the Session Initiation Protocol standard...
); and American Institutes for Research. At the IOM, she directed studies on health insurance
Health insurance
Health insurance is insurance against the risk of incurring medical expenses among individuals. By estimating the overall risk of health care expenses among a targeted group, an insurer can develop a routine finance structure, such as a monthly premium or payroll tax, to ensure that money is...
and access to care and provided testimony on children’s coverage to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners
National Association of Insurance Commissioners
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners is an Internal Revenue Code Section 501 non-profit organization which seeks to organize the regulatory and supervisory efforts of the various state insurance commissioners from around the United States. The NAIC was formed in 1871. Its current...
.
In 2000, she and her team at CDF
CDF
-Mathematics, science, and computers:* .cdf , the ANDI/netCDF mass spectrometry data interchange file format* Channel Definition Format, an XML standard* Charging Data Function, in the Session Initiation Protocol standard...
released All Over the Map, a report on progress implementing the State Children's Health Insurance Program
State Children's Health Insurance Program
The State Children's Health Insurance Program – later known more simply as the Children's Health Insurance Program – is a program administered by the United States Department of Health and Human Services that provides matching funds to states for health insurance to families with children...
. The report was used as a briefing and reference document for members of Congress and the Gore presidential campaign, and was widely covered by the media, including The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
.
In 2000, she co-founded MediaVision USA, a strategic communications firm. She co-teaches a course on Emergency and Risk Communication. She and her MediaVision partner, Charles Fulwood
Charles Fulwood
Charles Cinque Fulwood is a media and communications strategist who pioneered global media campaigns and the use of commercial marketing techniques for non-profit organizations...
, collaborated on an online multimedia course on emergency preparedness communications for the Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health Preparedness
Johns Hopkins
Johns Hopkins was a wealthy American entrepreneur, philanthropist and abolitionist of 19th-century Baltimore, Maryland, now most noted for his philanthropic creation of the institutions that bear his name, namely the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and the Johns Hopkins University and its associated...
, as well as a primer for health professionals on strategic communications. and also made several presentations at state, regional, and national conferences on public health preparedness. From 1999 to 2006, Edmunds was a member of the teaching faculty at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is part of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
, where she introduced strategic communications and informatics to policy analysis and public health practice.
Edmunds received a PhD in human development
Developmental psychology
Developmental psychology, also known as human development, is the scientific study of systematic psychological changes, emotional changes, and perception changes that occur in human beings over the course of their life span. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to...
at The Pennsylvania State University, where she studied systems theory
Systems theory
Systems theory is the transdisciplinary study of systems in general, with the goal of elucidating principles that can be applied to all types of systems at all nesting levels in all fields of research...
, policy analysis
Policy analysis
Policy analysis is "determining which of various alternative policies will most achieve a given set of goals in light of the relations between the policies and the goals". However, policy analysis can be divided into two major fields. Analysis of policy is analytical and descriptive—i.e., it...
, and clinical psychology
Clinical psychology
Clinical psychology is an integration of science, theory and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and personal development...
. She completed clinical training at the Behavioral Medicine
Behavioral medicine
Behavioral medicine is an interdisciplinary field of medicine concerned with the development and integration of knowledge in the biological, behavioral, psychological, and social sciences relevant to health and illness...
and Biofeedback
Biofeedback
Biofeedback is the process of becoming aware of various physiological functions using instruments that provide information on the activity of those same systems, with a goal of being able to manipulate them at will...
Clinic at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine , located in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S., is the academic medical teaching and research arm of Johns Hopkins University. Hopkins has consistently been the nation's number one medical school in the amount of competitive research grants awarded by the National...
and is a Fellow and former member of the Board of Directors of the Society of Behavioral Medicine
Behavioral medicine
Behavioral medicine is an interdisciplinary field of medicine concerned with the development and integration of knowledge in the biological, behavioral, psychological, and social sciences relevant to health and illness...
. She chaired the Health IT Interest Group for AcademyHealth from 2007 to June 2010. She is also a member of the Public Policy Committee and the Public Health Informatics Workgroup of the American Medical Informatics Association
American Medical Informatics Association
AMIA, formerly known as the American Medical Informatics Association, is an American non-profit organization dedicated to the development and application of biomedical and health informatics in the support of patient care, teaching, research, and health care administration.- History :AMIA is the...
.
Further reading
- Pew Internet Project and Elon College. Imagining the Internet: A History and Forecast (2004 Experts Survey)
- Edmunds M, Frank RG, et al. (1997) Managing Managed Care. Washington, DC: National Academy Press
- Edmunds M and Coye MJ. (1998) America's Children: Health Insurance and Access to Care. Washington, DC: National Academy Press
- Edmunds M and Coye MJ. (1998) Systems of Accountability: Implementing Children's Health Insurance Programs. Washington, DC: National Academy Press
- Edmunds M, Teitelbaum M, Gleason C. (2000). "All Over the Map: A Progress Report on the State Children's Health Insurance Program". Washington, DC: Children's Defense Fund
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Web-Site Content Helps Policymakers Implement the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP grant report, 2004)
- Steinhauer, Jennifer. "States Prove Unpredictable in Aiding Uninsured Children", The New York Times. September 28, 2000
- Johns Hopkins Communication in Contemporary Society Program website
- Edmunds M and Chambers S. (1990). "Behavioral Management of Neurologically-involved Patients", Topics in Neurology, Postgraduate Advances in Physical Therapy. Alexandria, VA: American Physical Therapy Association