Dr. Gusmano’s research investigates the consequences of health and social policy for poor and other vulnerable populations. For the past 15 years, Dr. Gusmano has co-directed the World Cities Project (WCP) with Victor G. Rodwin of New York University. The WCP represents the first effort to compare the performance of health, social and long-term care systems in New York, Hong Kong, London, Paris and Tokyo. Drawing on individual, as well as neighborhood-level data, primary data collection and available secondary data, the project compares health status and quality of life, informal support and social networks, health and social services, and long term care – both within and among these cities. The first book from this project, Growing Older in World Cities: New York, London, Paris and Tokyo, was published in 2006 by Vanderbilt University Press. The most recent book from the WCP, Health Care in World Cities (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010) documents the implications of national and local health care policies for access to care in New York, London and Paris.
In addition to investigating the consequences of health, environmental and social policy, Dr. Gusmano’s research also investigates the degree to which poor and vulnerable populations are able to influence policy decisions that affect their lives. In his book with Colleen Grogan, Healthy Voices/Unhealthy Silence: Advocating for Poor People’s Health (Georgetown University Press, 2007), they examined how representatives for the poor participate in an advisory board process. Drawing on the concepts of deliberative democracy, agenda setting, and nonprofit advocacy, they assess the capacity of nonprofit advocates to affect policy debates and serve as representatives of the poor and dispossessed.
Gusmano holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Maryland at College Park and a Masters in public policy from the State University of New York at Albany. He was also post-doctoral fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholars in Health Policy program at Yale University (1995-1997). He is the president of the Aging and Politics Group of the American Political Science Association and former president of the APSA’s Organized Section on Health Politics and Policy. He serves on the editorial boards for the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law,Health Economics Policy and Law, and The Hastings Center Report.
Contributions to Humans & Nature:
- The World is Aging
Review of Lisa Eckenwiler, Long-term Care, Globalization, and Justice
Noteworthy Links:
- Healthy Voices/Unhealthy Silence: Advocating for Poor People’s Health
A book by Michael Busmano and Colleen Gorgan.
