In 1967, when Ken Thorpe was 11 years old, his father took him to hear Martin Luther King, Jr. speak. They stood in an all-white Detroit suburb and watched King deliver an eloquent speech in a racially-charged environment. "It was remarkable in the sense that he put himself out there in a setting like that knowing that he likely was going to get heckled," Thorpe remembers.
More than 40 years later, Thorpe's colleagues say the Emory University health policy professor has put himself in hot seats of his own - national and state legislatures - to give his research a shot at changing health and science policy. As the cost of health care rises, and the prevalence of costly chronic conditions increases, those who have worked with Thorpe say his grounding in health care cost analysis will make him a key player in coming debates on ...
