Robert S. Saunders

Robert S. Saunders, PhD, is research director, payment and delivery reform, at Duke-Margolis. In this role, he directs a portfolio of payment and delivery reform initiatives, which focus on accountable care organizations, alternative payment models for specialty care, new payment and delivery approaches for serious illness care, and translating evidence to policy-relevant options. Prior to joining Duke-Margolis, Dr. Saunders was a senior director and then senior advisor to the president of the National Quality Forum, where he managed a large federally funded project that provided recommendations on quality measures for 20 different federal programs and directed special projects on topics including data, payment reform, systems engineering, and the future of health care quality measurement. He was previously a senior program officer at the Institute of Medicine and managed health care legislative affairs for Representative Rush D. Holt. He earned his doctorate in physics from Duke and his undergraduate degree from William and Mary.