Kenneth J. Smith, MD, MS, is a Professor of Medicine and Clinical and Translational Science and a core faculty member of the Center for Research on Health Care at the University of Pittsburgh. His research centers on the cost-effectiveness of common medical interventions, most notably on pneumococcal, influenza, and varicella vaccination and on the impact of racial disparities in vaccination rates. He has published in many other areas, including pelvic inflammatory disease, influenza management strategies, diabetes prevention and treatment, VA formulary decisions, anticoagulation and thrombotic disorder management, and hospital-physician communication. In addition, Dr. Smith is Associate Editor of the journal Medical Decision Making.
Outside of work, he enjoys reading, music, and meals with his foodie spouse and family.
Education & Training
- BS (Biochemistry), University of Maryland, 1979
- MD, George Washington University, 1983
- Residency (Internal Medicine), University of Pittsburgh, 1986
- MPH (Epidemiology), University of Pittsburgh, 1993
Representative Publications
Good CB, Parekh N, Fischer K, Manolis C, Schuster J, Shrank WH. Treating pain: the cannabis conundrum. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2019;170(2):123.
In this commentary, use of cannabis as a treatment for pain is described as a conundrum. Although the evidence basis for use of cannabis is of low quality, clinicians are eager to find non-opioid options to assist patients with chronic pain. More research is needed, however, before these products can be routinely advised for a pain indication.
Hernandez I, Good CB, Shrank W, Gellad W. Trends in Medicaid prices, market share and spending on long-acting insulins, 2006-2018. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2019;321(16):1627-1629.
Using Medicaid data, prices of long-acting insulins from 2005-2018 are presented. Reimbursement for these products averaged 13% annually from 2006-2014, but increases in prices were halted with the introduction of a biosimilar long acting insulin.
Gellad WF, Good CB. Adalimumab and the challenges for biosimilars. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2019.
Biosimilars for adalimumab (Humira) are projected to address expensive biological drug costs high spending in the inflammatory drug space, but newer and potentially better drugs will mitigate savings by replacing adalimumab with patent protected products.
Desai RJ, Good MM, San-Juan-Rodriguez A, Henriksen A, Cunningham F, Hernandez I, Good CB. Varenicline and nicotine replacement use associated with US Food and Drug Administration drug safety communications. JAMA Network Open. 2019;2(9):e1910626
Using varenicline as a case study, a retrospective, longitudinal, cross-sectional study of Veterans Health Administration outpatient data found that early communications from the FDA and VHA followed by a labeling change appeared to be associated with a considerable decrease in drug use, which may have been associated with negative public health consequences.
Click here for a more complete bibliography of Dr. Good’s works.
Research Interests
- Drug safety
- Cost effectiveness
- Value based pharmacy contracting