USC pharmacy professor selected as finalist for health care award

Neeraj Sood, an associate professor at the USC School of Pharmacy’s Titus Family Department, has been selected as one of five finalists for the National Institute of Health Care Management Award, according to USC News.

The annual award, now in its 16th year, honors those who have published work and done research that furthers innovation in health care. Such innovations may include more efficient methods of health care financing and delivery and implementation of health care policy.

In addition to recognition, the winner will receive a monetary prize of $10,000 at a dinner in Washington, D.C. in May.

Sood was recognized for an article submitted to the Health Services Research Journal. The article focused on the effect of health care costs that grow disproportionately larger than employment, gross output and value added to gross domestic product of U.S. industries. He concluded that the growth in health care costs adversely affects the economic performance of U.S. industries.

In addition to his research, Sood serves as director of international programs for the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at USC. He has published 10 peer-reviewed articles in the last four years in major journals and has been awarded in excess of $3 million in grants to aid his research.