Harold S. Luft, Ph.D., received his A.B., M.A., and Ph.D. in economics, specializing in health sector economics and public finance, from Harvard University. He is an adjunct investigator for PAMF's Department of Health Policy Research, as well as professor of health policy and health economics and director of the Institute for Health Policy Studies (IHPS) at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

Dr. Luft's experience in research and teaching has covered a wide range of areas, including medical care utilization, health maintenance organizations, hospital market competition, volume, quality and outcomes of hospital care, risk assessment and risk adjustment, and health care market reform. He has been involved in postdoctoral training for over 30 years, currently serving as director of the IHPS postdoctoral program and associate director of the Health and Society Scholars program sponsored jointly by UCSF and University of California, Berkeley.

He is a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and served six years on the IOM Council. He chaired and was a member of the National Advisory Council of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (now the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality). He also served on the board of AcademyHealth for 10 years and was co-editor-in-chief of the journal Health Services Research. Dr. Luft has authored, co-authored or edited four books and almost 200 articles in scientific journals.