Dr. Harris strives to improve healthcare for women through understanding and improving how healthcare systems work.
His research focuses on how the healthcare system can improve the care for women with obesity, particularly when patients also have disability or severe illness. Using large survey and claims datasets as well as in-depth patient and provider interviews, he is striving to understand how people with obesity receive care in the US healthcare system and how to improve that care for the millions of people with obesity. This work has looked at preventive and end-of-life care, and he is presently investigating long-term care, especially nursing home care.
He has also examined how to improve healthcare access and quality in gynecologic care. He is interested in issues of access and quality in hysterectomy and infertility care.
Harris JA, Swenson C, Uppal S, Kamdar N, Mahnert N, As-Sanie S, Morgan DM. Practice patterns and postoperative complications before and after US Food and Drug Administration safety communication on power morcellation. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2016 Jan; 214(1):98.e1-98.e13. PMID: 26314519.
Uppal S, Harris J, Al-Niaimi A, Swenson CW, Pearlman MD, Reynolds RK, Kamdar N, Bazzi A, Campbell DA, Morgan DM. Prophylactic Antibiotic Choice and Risk of Surgical Site Infection After Hysterectomy. Obstet Gynec. 2016 Feb; 127(2):321-329. PMID: 26942361.
Byhoff, E., Harris, J. A., Langa, K. M. and Iwashyna, T. J. (2016), Racial and Ethnic Differences in End-of-Life Medicare Expenditures. J Am Geriatr Soc. doi:10.1111/jgs.14263
Harris JA, Byhoff ER. Variations by State in Physician Disciplinary Actions by US Medical Licensure Boards. BMJ Qual. Saf. 2016 Mar 23. PMID: 27009311
Harris JA, Herrel LA, Healy MA, Wancata L, Perumalswami CR. Milestones for the Final Mile: Interspecialty Distinctions in Primary Palliative Care Skills Training. 2016 Jun 1. pii: S0885-3924(16)30117-8. PMID: 27260828
Harris JA, Iott B, Power R, Moniz M, Griggs JJ. Obesity and the Receipt of Influenza and Pneumococcal Immunization: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. BMC Obesity 2016, 3(1):1-11. PMID: 27200179
Byhoff E, Harris JA, Ayanian JZ. Characteristics of Decedents in Medicare Advantage and Traditional Medicare. JAMA Intern Med. 2016 Jul 1;176(7):1020-3. PMID: 27273237
Dr. Harris’s work has used traditional quantitative health services methodologies and national or regional secondary data to examine variations in healthcare systems for women. His previous work has variations in the use and outcomes related to various surgical methods and interventions in hysterectomy surgery. He is currently studying how patient obesity affects the healthcare system, and how patient obesity may be a factor is disparities in access to high quality healthcare, especially in long term care settings.