Faculty Directory

Dana P. GoldmanPhD

Dana P. GoldmanPhD

Leonard D. Schaeffer Director of the USC Schaeffer Institute for Public Policy & Government Service and University Professor of Public Policy, Pharmacy, and Economics

Department of Pharmaceutical and Health Economics

Dana P. Goldman is University Professor of Public Policy, Pharmacy, and Economics at the University of Southern California and the Leonard D. Schaeffer Director of the USC Schaeffer Institute for Public Policy & Government Service.  He has led the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics since its inception, establishing it as one of the world’s premier health economics organizations (ranked 3rd globally among 2,700+ institutions).  He previously served as Dean of the USC Price School of Public Policy from 2020 to 2024.

Dr. Goldman is the author of more than 350 articles and has been cited more than 23,000 times.  He pioneered a “Netflix model” to improve access to treatment and the benefits of  lower copayments for the chronically ill. He serves (or has served) as a health policy advisor to the Congressional Budget Office, California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, Covered California, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Institute, and GRAIL.  He has been awarded more than $50 million in research funding from NIH.  His research is regularly featured in outlets like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Stat, The Economist, NBC Nightly News, PBS NewsHour, CNN, NPR, and other media.

Dr. Goldman is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, National Academy of Social Insurance, and National Academy of Public Administration — three of his field’s highest honors.  He is a past recipient of the USC Associates Award, Alice Hersh Emerging Leader Award, MetLife Silver Scholar Award, NIHCM Research Award, Robert Biller Award—among other distinctions.  In 2024, USC appointed him a University Professor “for his decades of excellence as a policy leader and champion of interdisciplinary collaboration.”

Dr. Goldman is strongly committed to mentoring students and junior faculty. He was a founding director of USC’s Center for Minority Aging Research, funded by NIH, and he led it for 8 years.  Past trainees include faculty at Stanford, Harvard, Duke, UCLA, UCSF, USC, Tufts, World Bank, University of Pennsylvania, and Vanderbilt.  He has received the USC Mellon Mentoring Award and several other teaching awards.

Dr. Goldman frequently engages with the private and non-profit sectors.  He co-founded EntityRisk and Precision Health Economics, a consultancy sold in 2015.  He serves on the Board of Directors of the Price Philanthropies and previously held the Distinguished Chair in Health Economics at RAND, where he directed the health economics program.  He serves as a nonresident senior fellow at  The Brookings Institution, and research associate with the National Bureau for Economic Research.

He graduated B.A. summa cum laude from Cornell University and earned a Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University.

Areas of Expertise

  • Health Technology Assessment
  • Drug pricing
  • Health Care Reform
  • Health Policy and Economics
  • Managed Care
  • Formulary Design
  • Education

    Stanford University

    PhD

    Cornell University

    BA

  • Links
  • Selected Articles

    Trends in the Price per Median and Mean Life-Year Gained Among Newly Approved Cancer Therapies 1995 to 2017

    Value in Health

    2019 The prices of newly approved cancer drugs have risen over the past decades. A key policy question is whether the clinical gains offered by these drugs in treating specific cancer indications justify the price increases.

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    Insulin Access and Affordability Working Group: Conclusions and Recommendations

    American Diabetes Association

    2018 There are more than 30 million Americans with diabetes, a disease that costs the U.S. more than $327 billion per year (1,2). Achieving glycemic control and controlling cardiovascular risk factors have been conclusively shown to reduce diabetes complications, comorbidities, and mortality.

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    Encouraging New Uses for Old Drugs

    JAMA Network

    2017 US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of a new drug typically coincides with a period of patent protection, during which the manufacturer will often apply for additional indications to expand the market for the product. For example, the tyrosine kinase inhibitor imatinib (Gleevec; Novartis) was originally approved to treat Philadelphia chromosome–positive chronic myelogenous leukemia, but has since been approved for treatment of other cancers.

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    Prescription Drug Cost Sharing

    JAMA Network

    2017 Prescription drugs are instrumental to managing and preventing chronic disease. Recent changes in US prescription drug cost sharing could affect access to them.

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    Substantial Health And Economic Returns From Delayed Aging May Warrant A New Focus For Medical Research

    Health Affairs

    2013 Recent scientific advances suggest that slowing the aging process (senescence) is now a realistic goal. Yet most medical research remains focused on combating individual diseases. Using the Future Elderly Model—a microsimulation of the future health and spending of older Americans—we compared optimistic “disease specific” scenarios with a hypothetical “delayed aging” scenario in terms of the scenarios’ impact on longevity, disability, and major entitlement program costs.

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    Drug Licenses: A New Model For Pharmaceutical Pricing

    Health Affairs

    2008 High drug prices are a major barrier to patients’ access to drugs and compliance with treatment. Yet low drug prices are often argued to provide inadequate incentives for innovation.

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  • Affiliations
    • Elected member, National Academy of Medicine

    • Elected member, National Academy of Social Insurance

    • Elected member, National Academy of Public Administration

  • Accomplishments

    USC Associates Award for Creativity in Research

    2017 - Associates awards are “the highest honors the university faculty can bestow on its members for distinguished intellectual and artistic achievements.”

    University Professor

    2024 - Appointed University Professor “for his decades of excellence as a policy leader and champion of interdisciplinary collaboration.”

    Alice S. Hersh Emerging Leader Award

    MetLife Silver Scholar Award

    National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Research Foundation Award

    Robert Biller Award

  • Research Grants

    Roybal Center for Health Policy Simulation

    National Institute on Aging,

    2004-2019

    Transforming Research and Clinical Knowledge in Traumatic Brain Injury II

    NINDS,

    2013-2018

    Resource Center for Minority Aging Research

    National Institutes of Health,

    2012-2017

    Technological Innovation in Health Care and the Long-Term Outlook

    National Institutes of Health,

    2014-2016

    An Economic and Behavioral Evaluation of Medicare Part D

    National Institute on Aging,

    2011-2016

  • Multimedia
    • Schaeffer Center
    • Dana P. Goldman, PhD
    • Dana P. Goldman, PhD
  • Selected Media Appearances

    Media

    Op-eds, media appearances and commentary

    Dr. Goldman's work has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Washington Post, Business Week, U.S. News and World Report, The Economist, NBC Nightly News, CNN, National Public Radio, and other media.

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    Opinion: This is a health-care plan both Republicans and Democrats should agree onq

    MarketWatch | 08/06/2019

    The one area of agreement in the debate over health insurance is that too many Americans lack it — now 27 million and counting. The differences emerge over how to expand coverage and how to pay for it.

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    Here's how we can control drug costs while spurring innovation

    The Hill | 06/14/2019

    Health care is one of the most valuable services that Americans spend their money on, but it also can be the most expensive. Political pressure to do something is enormous. Given the partisan slow boat in Washington, states have started to move with willingness — especially with regard to prescription drugs. This is posing a huge challenge to a rational national policy.

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    Opinion: Health Care's Killer App: Life Insurance

    Wall Street Journal | 03/20/2019

    The industry could profit by helping policyholders pay for cancer treatments that prolong life.

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    Opinion: The bigger message behind Amgen’s decision to slash cost of its Repatha cholesterol drug

    MarketWatch | 10/29/2018

    Amgen has just announced a 60% cut in the price of its innovative anti-cholesterol medicine, Repatha. That is big news to people at risk for heart attacks and strokes, many of whom had been forgoing the treatment because of high out-of-pocket costs.

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    Opinion: When we find a cure, price it like Netflix to ensure access

    The Hill | 08/13/2018

    An essential lesson from the successful fight against AIDS is that early access to effective treatment can avoid long-term costs.

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