Zirui Song, MD, PhD
Zirui Song, MD, PhD, is an associate professor of health care policy and medicine at Harvard Medical School and a general internist at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he practices primary care and attends on the inpatient medicine teaching service.
Dr. Song’s research focuses on the health and economic effects of financial incentives, public policies, and other changes in the health care system. This has included studies of payment reform, Medicare Advantage, private sector programs, corporate acquisitions of hospitals and physicians, and public health issues.
Dr. Song directs the Health Policy concentration in the MGH Internal Medicine Residency Program. He also co-directs the Essentials of the Profession–Health Policy course for first-year Harvard medical and dental students. Similarly, he has co-led HMS Executive Education courses for employers and global health care leaders, along with the Mass General Brigham Health Policy Course for residents and fellows. He has received several teaching awards and the Young Mentor Award at HMS. He currently advises medical trainees, Ph.D. students, and postdoctoral fellows.
Dr. Song has worked on Medicare payment policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and with state policymakers on issues around health care access and affordability. He has served on committees for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Aspen Institute, and National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. He is an Associate Editor of JAMA Health Forum and Editorial Board member of Health Services Research.
Dr. Song is an elected member of the National Academy of Social Insurance and American Society for Clinical Investigation. His research has been recognized by AcademyHealth, Society of General Internal Medicine, National Institute for Health Care Management, American College of Physicians, National Academy of Medicine, and International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research. For clinical work, he received the Morton N. Swartz, M.D. Humanism in Medicine Award at MGH.
Dr. Song trained in internal medicine (primary care track) at MGH. He received an M.D. magna cum laude from HMS and Ph.D. in Health Policy (Economics track) from Harvard, where he was a fellow in Aging and Health Economics at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He received a B.A. in Public Health Studies with honors from Johns Hopkins University.