Stanford Health Policy Affiliate Keith N. Humphreys, PhD, was awarded the 2021 Under Secretary Award for Outstanding Achievement in Health Services Research — the highest honor for a VA health services researcher.

The Esther Ting Memorial Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and a Senior Career Research Scientist at the VA Health Services Research Center in Palo Alto, Humphreys was honored for: 

• Improving our understanding of factors that affect the health of veterans and the quality of their care;
• Contributing to the future of VA health services research by inspiring and training a new generation of investigators, and; 
• Enhancing the visibility of VA research through national recognition within the research community.

"Over his career, Dr. Humphreys has shed light on several key issues to enhancing VA healthcare, including the possibilities and limitations of applying practical guidelines in everyday clinical practice," reads a VA news release. The honors also note that Humphreys' work highlights how self-help groups for addiction disorders can improve treatment outcomes and reduce health-care costs and that innovative research methods can aid in assessing outcomes.

"In addition to conducting impactful research, Dr. Humphreys has mentored many junior health services researchers over the past 25 years, including several VA Career Development Awardees," the VA said, noting that Humphreys is from a family of veterans, "including several whose lives were saved by the care they received in our system." 

Humphreys chairs the Stanford-Lancet commission that produced a report earlier this year that found the opioid epidemic is projected to claim more than 1.2 million lives in the United States this decade without new efforts to stem the crisis.

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