Matt Austin, MS, PhD
- Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Faculty
Languages
- English
Gender
MaleAbout Matt Austin
Primary Academic Title
Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine
Background
Dr. Matt Austin is an associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His research focuses on performance measurement in health care. Dr. Austin is a principal faculty member at the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality.
His current research interests include understanding the role of transparency of quality and safety data in driving improvements in care delivery, measuring disparities in the quality of care, and measuring the diagnostic performance of hospitals.
Dr. Austin currently provides strategic guidance to The Leapfrog Group on performance measures for their annual Leapfrog Hospital Survey, Hospital Safety Grade, and Ambulatory Surgery Center Survey.
He has served as a member of the National Quality Forum’s (NQF) Scientific Methods Panel since 2017, reviewing the reliability and validity testing for measures submitted to NQF for endorsement.
Dr. Austin earned his Ph.D. in industrial and systems engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Centers and Institutes
Recent News Articles and Media Coverage
Safety in Numbers, US News & World Report (June 21, 2017)
What’s a Patient To Do When Hospital Ratings Disagree?, National Public Radio (March 4, 2015)
Hospital Rating Systems Differ on Best and Worst, The New York Times (March 2, 2015)
National Hospital Rating Systems Show Little Agreement – What’s A Consumer To Do?, WTOP Radio (March 11, 2015)
Contact for Research Inquiries
750 E. Pratt Street
1527
Baltimore, MD 21202
Phone: (410) 637-6263
jausti17@jhmi.edu
Research Interests
measuring diagnostic performance of hospitals., measuring disparities in the quality of care, Quality improvement and patient safety performance measurement, transparency of quality data driving improvements in care delivery
Lab Website
John Matthew Austin Lab
- Research in the John Matthew Austin Lab explores health care performance measures, with a goal of improving patient care by enabling healthcare providers to view data about their performance, track patient outcomes and comply with best care practices. Our lab is currently working to develop performance measures for the ICU part, and we are part of The Leapfrog Group, an annual survey of U.S. hospitals that compares hospital performance on national measures of safety, quality and efficiency. Our research also explores the use of scientifically sound decision-support tools for guiding improvements in healthcare delivery systems.
Research Summary
Dr. Austin’s research broadly focuses on performance measurement in health care. His research has included the development of a composite score for patient safety in hospitals, analyzing the level of agreement and disagreement across multiple national hospital rating systems, researching how performance measures can be used to drive and sustain internal quality improvements within health care organizations, and how an oversight model could strengthen current quality and safety reporting efforts. Dr. Austin’s current research interests include understanding the role of transparency of quality and safety data in driving improvements in care delivery, measuring disparities in the quality of care, and measuring the diagnostic performance of hospitals.
His work has been funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, The Commonwealth Fund, AARP, The Leapfrog Group, and the Cautious Patient Foundation.
Dr. Austin has published in a variety of journals including Health Affairs, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Health Services Research, Academic Medicine, BMJ Quality and Safety, The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, and American Journal of Medical Quality.
Selected Publications
Nerenz DR, Austin JM, Deutscher D, Maddox KEJ, Nuccio EJ, Teigland C, Weinhandl E, Glance LG. Adjusting Quality Measures For Social Risk Factors Can Promote Equity In Health Care. Health Aff (Millwood). 2021 Apr;40(4):637-644.
Austin JM, D'Andrea G, Birkmeyer JD, Leape LL, Milstein A, Pronovost PJ, Romano PS, Singer SJ, Vogus TJ, Wachter RM. “Safety in numbers: the development of Leapfrog's composite patient safety score for U.S. hospitals.” J Patient Saf. 2014 Mar;10(1):64-71. doi: 10.1097/PTS.0b013e3182952644.
Austin JM, Jha AK, Romano PS, Singer SJ, Vogus TJ, Wachter RM, Pronovost PJ. National Hospital Ratings Systems Share Few Common Scores And May Generate Confusion Instead Of Clarity. Health Aff (Millwood). 2015;34(3):423-30.
Austin JM, Kachalia A. The state of health care quality measurement in the era of COVID-19: the importance of doing better. JAMA. 2020 Jul;324(4):333-334.
Austin JM, McGlynn EA, Pronovost PJ. Fostering Transparency in Outcomes, Quality, Safety, and Costs. JAMA. 2016;316(16):1661-1662.
Professional Activities
- Co-Director, Applied Applied Master of Science Program in Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 2018
- Panel Member, National Quality Forum Scientific Methods Panel, 2017
- Principal Faculty, Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, 2012