Aaron Baum, PhD

About Me

Biography

My research uses methods from empirical economics and statistics to evaluate and personalize the targeting of health services and policies. I have a PhD from Columbia University, where I studied health and development economics, and a BS in mathematics from the University of Chicago. I have a primary appointment in the Department of Health System Design and Global Health at Mount Sinai and a secondary appointment in the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences. I am also affiliated with the Veterans Health Administration (New York Harbor), the Department of Medicine at Stanford University, and the Harvard Center for Primary Care.

I have a long-term interest in improving access to quality health care services for vulnerable populations. I was part of the team that started City Health Works in Harlem NY, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funded organization that employs community workers to deliver home health coaching and care coordination services to Medicaid beneficiaries. I was also previously a technologist in residence at Cornell Tech, where I helped design a digital nutrition application to scale-up access to registered dietician services under Prof. Deborah Estrin, who was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2018. In partnership with the largest microfinance institution in Haiti, I was part of the team that developed a community health entrepreneur program that has now been scaled up to reach millions of rural, low-income women and children.

Select Publications (Google scholar)

Baum A, Wisnivesky J, Basu S, Siu AL, Schwartz MD (2020). Association of Geographic Differences in Prevalence of Uncontrolled Chronic Conditions With Changes in Individuals' Likelihood of Uncontrolled Chronic Conditions. JAMA.

Baum A, Kaboli PJ, Schwartz MD (2020). Reduced In-Person and Increased Telehealth Outpatient Visits During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Annals of Internal Medicine.

Baum A, Schwartz MD (2020). Admissions to Veterans Affairs Hospitals for Emergency Conditions During the COVID-19 Pandemic. JAMA.

Baum A, Barnett ML, Wisnivesky J, & Schwartz MD. (2019). Association Between a Temporary Reduction in Access to Health Care and Long-term Changes in Hypertension Control Among Veterans After a Natural Disaster. JAMA Network Open.

Bruzelius E & Baum A (2019). The Mental Health of Hispanic/Latino Americans Following National Immigration Policy Changes: United States, 2014–2018. American Journal of Public Health.

Scarpa J, Bruzelius E, Doupe P, Le M, Faghmous J, Baum A (2019). Assessment of Risk of Harm Associated With Intensive Blood Pressure Management Among Patients With Hypertension Who Smoke: A Secondary Analysis of the Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial. JAMA Network Open.

Baum A, Aguilar-Gomez S, Lightwood J, Bruzelius E, Glantz S, Basu S (2019). Estimating the long-run relationship between state cigarette taxes and county life expectancy. Tobacco Control.

Baum A, Song Z, Landon, B, Phillips, R, Bitton, A Basu, S (2019). Health Care Spending Slowed After Rhode Island Applied Affordability Standards To Commercial Insurers. Health Affairs.

Baum A, Scarpa J, Bruzelius E, Tamler R, Basu S, & Faghmous J. (2017). Targeting weight loss interventions to reduce cardiovascular complications of type 2 diabetes: a machine learning-based post-hoc analysis of heterogeneous treatment effects in the Look AHEAD trial. The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.

Baum A, Elize W, & Jean-Louis F. (2017). Microfinance Institutions’ Successful Delivery of Micronutrient Powders: A Randomized Trial In Rural Haiti. Health Affairs.

Press/Editorials