Alison Galbraith, M.D.

Alison A. Galbraith, M.D., M.P.H., is an assistant professor of population medicine at Harvard Medical School and a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital in Boston. Her research focuses on the effects of insurance policy on health and health care for vulnerable populations. Dr. Galbraith’s work has recently examined the effects of high-deductible health care plans on health care usage for children and families, particularly those with chronic conditions. Her research has been published in Health Affairs, Pediatrics, Health Services Research, and Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. 

Dr. Galbraith received her M.D. from University of Rochester and her M.P.H. at University of Washington. She completed her pediatric residency at the University of California, San Francisco, and participated in fellowships at the Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco and the University of Washington Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program.

From February 2007 through July 2009, Dr. Galbraith served as the principal investigator for a HCFO sponsored grant that examined the impact of high-deductible health plans on families. The researchers compared families with chronic conditions in high-deductible plans to families with chronic conditions in traditional plans to assess financial burden. They also examined whether or not one family member’s health or resource use influenced that of other family members. The objective of the project was to inform policymakers about the potential advantages and disadvantages of high-deductible plans for families with chronic conditions. 

For the complete findings of Dr. Galbraith’s study see this month’s findings brief.