Ming Tai-Seale, Ph.D., MPH

Ming Tai-Seale, Ph.D., MPH, is Senior Scientist at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation's Research Institute (PAMFRI) and a Consulting Professor at Stanford School of Medicine Department of Health Research and Policy. Her research focuses on:

1. Effect of financial and organizational incentives on practice behavior of health care providers and the subsequent impact on cost, utilization and quality of health care
2. Economics of mental health services in primary care, and
3. Economics of patient-centered primary care for patients with multiple chronic conditions.

Dr. Tai-Seale has contributed to the understanding of time allocation, decision-making, and patient engagement in biomedical and mental health care in primary care practices across the spectrum of provider payment mechanisms.

Her current research includes application of theoretical perspectives and empirical methods from economics and communications research to the area of physician agency. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), Assistant Secretary of Planning and Evaluation, Veterans Health Administration, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Palo Alto Medical Foundation.

Ongoing studies include a study of the costs of transforming primary care at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. Other ongoing studies include creating a zone of openness to enhance patient engagement with health care providers, impact of health information technology on patient-physician communication during office visits, team-based care for patients with several poorly managed chronic conditions, and improving patient experience in choosing Medicare Part D plans.  She is also on the Advisory Council for the “You Complete Me!” study which involves redesigning healthcare delivery to seniors, and she is the site-PI for a patient engagement grant funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation investigating the feasibility and scalability of a new measure of patient engagement.

Two jointly authored papers have won the Article-of-the-Year Award from AcademyHealth on patient-physician interaction and mental health services in primary care. For over six years, she has been serving as a member of the editorial board of Health Services Research. Further, she has been serving as a grant proposal reviewer for the NIH, AHRQ, PCORI, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  She had been the committee chair for the AcademyHealth Article-of-the-Year award selection committee as well as a member of the AcademyHealth project advisory committee. In addition to contributing numerous original research articles to peer-reviewed journals, her research has been discussed in hearings in the U.S. Senate and in the popular press such as The New York Times, Washington Post, O magazine, Good Housekeeping, and Ladies' Home Journal.

Dr. Tai-Seale earned her Ph.D. in Health Services with a cognate in Economics from the University of California Los Angeles. She also has an MPH from Emory University and received medical training at Jiaotong University School of Medicine in Shanghai, China.

Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute
, address: 795 El Camino Real , Ames Building
Palo Alto, CA 94301-2302
, phone: (650) 326-8120
, email: tai-sealem@pamfri.org