GAO - Government Accountability Office

09/23/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/23/2026 08:28

GAO Makes Appointments to PCORI Governing Board

WASHINGTON, DC (September 23, 2026) - Orice Williams Brown, Acting Comptroller General of the United States and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), today announced the appointment of three new members to the Governing Board of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). Brown also reappointed four members.

The newly appointed members are Amber Healy, DO, Diabetologist and Clinical Professor at the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine; Raymond Tsai, M.D., Vice President of Clinical Strategy & Innovation at Purchaser Business Group on Health; and Craig Umscheid, M.D., Interim Vice President, Patient Safety and Infection Prevention, MedStar Health.

In addition, Brown reappointed the following members to a second term through September 2032:

Christopher P. Boone, Ph.D., Group Vice President of Research Services, Oracle Health & Life Sciences; Adjunct Assistant Professor, New York University Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service; Connie Hwang, M.D., MPH, Independent health care consultant and former Chief Clinical Officer at Accolade; Eboni Price-Haywood, M.D., MPH, MMM, FACP, System Medical Director, Health Outcomes & Inclusion, Ochsner Health System and Associate Dean for Health Equity and Public Health, Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine; and Danny van Leeuwen, MPH, RN, OPA, Founder and Principal of Health Hats.

All new members are appointed to a six-year term through September 2032; they may be reappointed for one subsequent six-year term. Brief biographies of the three new members follow:

Amber Healy, DO is a Diabetologist and Clinical Professor at the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and has focused on improving outcomes for patients with complex chronic conditions, particularly in rural and underserved areas. She also currently serves as Practice Lead Physician for the Ohio Health Physician Group Heritage College Diabetes and Endocrinology practice in Athens, Ohio and has been the Diabetology Fellowship Program Director since 2015. In these roles, Dr. Healy has demonstrated exceptional leadership in clinical program development, physician training, and interdisciplinary collaboration. She has been widely recognized for her excellence in education and patient care, including receiving the 2025 Outstanding Clinical Faculty Specialty Medicine Award from the Clinical Education Network and the 2022 Distinguished Osteopathic Commitment Award, which reflect her dedication to improving both patient outcomes and the training of future physicians. Dr. Healy has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications addressing diabetes care, health outcomes and population health challenges. She earned her Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine from Ohio University and her B.S. from Kent State University.

Raymond Tsai, M.D. is the Vice President of Clinical Strategy & Innovation at the Purchaser Business Group on Health (PBGH), a non-profit coalition of leading employers and public purchasers collectively responsible for more than $350 billion in annual health care spending and over 21 million covered lives. He brings the employer fiduciary perspective, helping ensure that health care decisions are grounded in evidence, aligned with patient needs, and focused on delivering value. His work includes leading PBGH's Advanced Primary Care strategy and Care Excellence Program, which establishes purchaser-driven standards for high-quality, integrated primary care. He also helped lead the PBGH Health Care Data Demonstration Project, which made price transparency, claims and quality data actionable for employer purchasing and fiduciary oversight. Dr. Tsai previously worked as the clinician executive who was part of setting up primary care clinics at The Wonderful Company and was the clinical leader as a practicing primary care physician. Dr. Tsai is a board-certified family physician and clinical informaticist with expertise in translating clinical evidence and real-world data into large-scale purchasing and policy decisions. He earned his M.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine, his M.S. from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and his B.A. from University of California San Diego.

Craig Umscheid, M.D. is a hospitalist and clinical epidemiologist who currently serves as the Interim Vice President of Patient Safety and Infection Prevention at MedStar Health. He was previously the Director of the Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (CQuIPS) at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Prior to AHRQ, Dr. Umscheid served as the Chief Quality and Innovation Officer and Vice President of Healthcare Delivery Science at the University of Chicago Medical Center. He began his career at the University of Pennsylvania, where he co-founded and directed Penn Medicine's Center for Evidence-based Practice, and was the inaugural Vice Chair of Quality and Safety for the Department of Medicine. His career has been dedicated to disseminating and implementing research evidence into clinical practice to support patient care quality. His work has been supported by AHRQ, PCORI, CDC and NIH, and has been described in over 150 publications. Dr. Umscheid also provides clinical service in hospital medicine at Georgetown, where he is a Professor of Medicine. He earned his M.D. from Georgetown University, his M.S. from the University of Pennsylvania, and his B.A. from Cornell University.

For more information about PCORI, contact Ray Sendejas, [email protected], or GAO's Health Care team at (202) 512-7113, or visit the GAO Health Care Advisory Committees web page at www.gao.gov/about/hcac. Other inquiries should be directed to Sarah Kaczmarek, Managing Director of GAO Public Affairs at media.gov.

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