Robert E. Burke, PhD, is the Chair of the Department of Health Services Administration and Leadership and Director of the Wertlieb Educational Institute for Long Term Care Management at the School of Public Health at the George Washington University Medical Center (GWU) in Washington, DC. Within the School of Public Health and Health Services, he has a joint appointment in the Department of Health Policy. He is a medical sociologist whose areas of research and expertise are the development, evaluation, and management of health care policy. Prior to joining GWU, Dr. Burke held senior research positions at the Institute of Medicine, GAO, and the Health and Retirement Funds of the United Mine Workers and the Pepper Commission between 1989 and 2002 and again starting in 2005, he is a senior consultant to the Health Care Financing Administration (now the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) directing the design of the new prospective payments systems for nursing homes and rehabilitation hospitals. He also directed projects that address health services research, finance, cost management effectiveness, and health care program evaluation, for both the public sector, i.e., State and Federal agencies, and for the private sector, i.e., for health care providers such as long-term care facilities, hospitals, home health agencies, and state and Federal agencies. He has a thorough knowledge of health systems management as well as the policy and program issues of Medicare, Medicaid and the other third-party health care payment systems. Dr. Burke has a Ph.D. in Medical Sociology from the University of Florida.