Joanne Lynn M.D., M.A., M.S.

Joanne Lynn, M.D., M.A., M.S. is the director of the Program to Improve Eldercare at Altarum. One of the first hospice physicians in the US, Dr. Lynn is author of 300 peer-reviewed journal articles and 80 books and chapters on geriatrics, palliative care, and end of life care. She has been medical director of hospice, long-term care facilities, and home care, as well as the Chair of the geriatrics program at George Washington University School of Medicine.  She has led the team that has developed the MediCaring Communities reform model for eldercare and is actively working to build the elements needed for integrating management of comprehensive care planning for geographic communities, including developing the metrics and governance models for counties to be able to manage the arrangements for both medical care and supportive services for disabled elderly people. She is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine, a Master in the American College of Physicians, a Fellow of both the American Geriatrics Society (which awarded her the Nascher/Manning Award for lifetime achievement in geriatrics) and the Hastings Center (which awarded her the Henry Knowles Beecher Award for lifetime achievement in ethics and life sciences), and a former faculty member of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Previously a medical officer for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), she helped craft 2010-2011 CMS reforms relating to care transitions post-hospital and developed metrics for measuring quality in long-term care, home hospice and community settings. As Bureau Chief for Cancer and Chronic Diseases for the city of Washington, DC, Dr. Lynn led major initiatives in tobacco control, community organizing, and chronic disease management. Dr. Lynn has been a tenured professor in Medicine at both George Washington University and Dartmouth College School of Medicine. Dr. Lynn received an MS in Evaluative Clinical Sciences from Dartmouth College, an MA in Philosophy and Social Policy from George Washington University and an MD from Boston University School of Medicine.

Joanne Lynn is a 2019 grantee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Health Data for Action program, managed by AcademyHealth.