Thomas C. Tsai, MD, MPH, FACS, is the Medical Director for Health Policy Research in the ACS Division of Advocacy and Health Policy.
Dr. Tsai is a minimally invasive gastrointestinal and bariatric surgeon and associate professor of surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. He is also an associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.
As Medical Director for Health Policy Research, Dr. Tsai’s responsibilities include developing and implementing a resident scholar program in health policy and advocacy and engaging in health policy research in coordination with the ACS policy agenda.
A renowned researcher in the field of healthcare payment and delivery system reform, Dr. Tsai codirects the Healthcare Quality and Outcomes Lab at Harvard. His recent research projects have focused on the consequences of Medicare privatization on surgical access and outcomes; evaluation of value-based care models on cost and quality of surgical care; the effect of hospital mergers on healthcare quality; and the consequences of private equity acquisitions of healthcare facilities.
Dr. Tsai has focused on translating research into evidence-driven clinical programs and national health policy. At Brigham and Women’s Hospital, he has served as director of clinical care redesign, leading the design and implementation of surgical home hospital programs. He has extensive health policy leadership experience in the federal government. He previously served as Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the US Department of Health and Human Services in the Obama Administration, expanding access to health insurance through implementation of the Affordable Care Act Marketplace.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, he served as senior policy advisor for the COVID-19 Response Team in the Biden Administration. In his capacity as the testing and treatment coordinator on the White House COVID-19 Response Team, Dr. Tsai coordinated federal policies and programs to deliver widespread access to COVID-19 diagnostics and treatments. Dr. Tsai has also served as vice-chair of the Council on Graduate Medical Education of the Health Resources and Services Administration and a consultant to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration.
Dr. Tsai earned his MD degree at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California and his MPH degree at the Chan School of Public Health. He has been an ACS Fellow since 2022.
