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Professor David B. Matchar, MD, is the Inaugural Director of the Programme in Health Services and Systems Research (HSSR) (2008-2018). He is also Professor of Medicine at Duke University in the United States. He currently serves as lead economic and policy analyst to the Singapore clinical genomics program, PRECISE, and consultant to the Ministry of Health national initiative for healthcare transformation, Healthier SG.

Professor Matchar received his AB in Statistics from Princeton University. After completing his MD degree and residency training he served as fellow in the Department of Internal Medicine at Duke. He has worked in clinical research for over 35 years; his work primarily relates to stroke and other chronically disabling neurological disorders, as well as clinical and public policy analysis. He served as Director of the Duke Center for Clinical Health Policy Research and established the Duke Evidence-based Practice Center, which was responsible for analysis in support of coverage policy for the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as well as guidelines for medical professional societies.

In August 2009, Dr. Matchar was awarded the prestigious STaR Investigator Award by the Singapore Ministry of Health’s (MOH) National Medical Research Council (NMRC) and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STaR), for developing a systems model to address crucial strategic and operational challenges presented by a rapidly ageing population. He is the Principal Investigator of several other MOH HSR grants including: Multifactorial, evidence-based program of screening, risk modification and physical therapy to prevent falls among vulnerable elderly recently discharged from hospital to the community, A randomised control trial to improve the uptake of and adherence to outpatient rehabilitation services among stroke patients and Defining and evaluating norms for health and social service use for population health segments. Industry sponsored grants include: Assessment of the feasibility of utilizing the SingHealth healthcare cluster to improve patient care and clinical outcomes for asthma and COPD patients through real world data linkages and analytics and Management of noncommunicable diseases in Cambodia.

Most recently, Professor Matchar was awarded a 3 year grant to assess the impact of enhanced primary care services for Singaporeans with chronic health conditions.  Professor Matchar will approach this challenge using a simulation model linked to new and existing data sources. The model will represent the dynamic phenomena that promote or inhibit development of enhanced primary care, and will allow stakeholders to engage in in-silico experiments to consider the implications of various policy options.

While the content of Professor Matchar’s research spans the range of clinical medicine, the essential nature of his work has involved integration of researchers from multiple disciplines under a common conceptual framework, to address important and complex healthcare issues. His overarching goal has been to promote the use of best evidence to support clinical and public policy decision making. A fundamental challenge is how to bridge the gap between analysts and decision makers —a challenge made more difficult when the issues involve multiple stakeholders, competing priorities, and are complex in detail and dynamics (involve potential undesirable consequences due to feedback or time delays). For this work, Singapore has been an especially receptive environment for innovation in health services research.

Ultimately, Professor Matchar’s objective is to facilitate the work of the programme faculty, to enhance health services research in SingHealth and other healthcare clusters, and to establish a robust education program in Health Services and Systems Research that will serve Singapore and the region into the future.