Dr. Rachel Patzer is the President and CEO of the Regenstrief Institute as well as a research scientist within the William M. Tierney Center for Health Services Research based in Indianapolis, IN. She is also the Leonard Betley Professor of Surgery at the Indiana University School of Medicine, with an adjunct appointment at the IU Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health.

Dr. Patzer is an epidemiologist and health services researcher with a strong focus on healthcare access, quality of healthcare delivery and healthcare outcomes. Her research investigations center around key areas such as disparities, social determinants of health, community-based participatory research, healthcare quality, health systems interventions, and health policy evaluations. She has been instrumental in reshaping the transplantation paradigm, advocating for a population health approach to inform quality measures, policies and interventions.

One of Dr. Patzer’s accomplishments includes leading the development of a novel surveillance data registry for kidney disease, known as the Early Steps to Transplant Access Registry (ESTAR). This registry encompasses data from over 35 transplant centers nationwide covering transplant referral and evaluation processes that are not captured in national surveillance databases. Dr. Patzer is Principal Investigator of several active NIH-funded studies of multi-level (dialysis facility-, provider-, and patient-level) interventions to help increase access to kidney transplantation through pragmatic, randomized trials. Notable studies under her direction include the Reducing Disparities in Access to kidNey Transplantation (RaDIANT) expansion study to conduct epidemiologic analyses comparing regional factors associated with early steps to transplant access (NIDDK R01), a pragmatic, multi-level, health systems intervention focused on transplant centers to reduce disparities in transplant access (NIDDK R01) and the Living ACTS (About Choices in Transplantation & Sharing) study to improve living donor transplantation access among African Americans with kidney failure. She continues to lead work advancing these goals as director of the Transplant Research for Enhancing Access Team (TREAT) within the Center for Health Services Research.

Dr. Patzer also holds important roles within the kidney research community. She is the cofounder and Lifetime Director of the Southeastern Kidney Transplant Coalition, a member of the American Society of Nephrology Policy & Advocacy Committee, and immediate past Chair of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Data Advisory Committee.