About Us
The Health Economists & Academic Leaders (HEAL) Network is a community of economists and academics dedicated to the exchange of ideas and the development and promotion of sound research to improve healthcare policy.
The HEAL Network is focused on injecting sound economic thinking into healthcare policy debates at both the federal and state levels. Our community of economists and academic leaders from around the United States are united in their belief that more competition, innovation, accountability, consumer choice, and transparency are needed in America’s healthcare sector to improve the health and well-being of every patient. By supporting research and development and facilitating idea exchange, the HEAL Network provides unique opportunities for scholars to network with colleagues, identify collaborative opportunities, and inform policy debates in real time.
Mission
To foster a collaborative environment for health economists and academic leaders to exchange ideas and conduct rigorous research to proactively inform healthcare policy decisions.
Vision
A healthcare market, informed by evidence-based research and policy, that produces more efficient, accessible, and affordable care for patients.
Core Values
Non-partisanship
Academic integrity
Collaboration
Transparency
Impact
Organizational Leadership
Stephen T. Parente
Founding Director,
The HEAL Network
Stephen T. Parente, PhD, MPH, MS
Stephen T. Parente is the Minnesota Insurance Industry Chair of Health Finance in Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota and Associate Dean of the Carlson Global Institute.
As a finance professor, he specializes in health economics, information technology, and health insurance. He has been the principal investigator on large government and foundation funded studies regarding consumer-directed health plans, health information technology and health policy micro-simulation. He is the founding director of the AASCB award winning Medical Valuation Laboratory, a nine-college interdisciplinary effort to accelerate medical innovation from scientists, clinicians, and entrepreneurs. Parente is the Founding Director of the Medical Industry MBA.
Parente has been published in peer-reviewed journals on health reform, medical technology assessment, and consumer choices in health and wealth management, including JAMA, Inquiry, Health Services Research, the RAND Journal of Economics, Health Economics, the Journal of Health Economics, and the American Journal of Health Economics. He has been quoted and interviewed by the New York Times, Washington Post, National Public Radio, the PBS News Hour, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal.
In Washington DC, he served in government as Chief Economist for Health Policy on the Council of Economic Advisers at the White House, Senior Adviser to the Secretary for Health Economics in the Department of Health and Human Services and adviser to the Congressional Budget Office. He is President-Elect of the American Society of Health Economists. Parente also served as Chair of the Health Care Cost Institute, health policy advisor for the McCain 2008 and Legislative Fellow in the office of Senator John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV). He has a PhD in health finance and organization from Johns Hopkins University, and an MPH in health economics and an MS in public policy analysis, both from the University of Rochester in New York.