James Wrocklage

james

Health Economist

Research Triangle Institute, Massachusetts

James Wrocklage (MSPH 2015) is currently working as a health economist in the Health Care Financing and Payment Division of the Research Triangle Institute in Massachusetts. In this position, he conducts financial analyses related to the  Affordable Care Act working to make the U.S. health care system more efficient.

While at Rollins, James worked at the CDC with a health economics team and gained experience working with claims data by tracking venous thromboembolism (VTE) – a major cause of preventable death after hospitalization. He also worked on a local community health evaluation project that gave him valuable public health skills and a deep understanding of a number of health information technology systems and how these systems could be used to attain evaluation goals.

As an HPM MSPH student, James conducted his thesis research on health information technology (HIT) adoption among U.S. hospitals. He found that small hospitals (<100 beds) fall the furthest behind in HIT adoption and may be failing to implement even rudimentary HIT technologies. Also, rural and for-profit hospitals, as well as hospitals with poor network involvement lag behind national averages

Each of these experiences helped establish James as a public health professional and solidified his career path. 

As I applied for jobs towards the end of my time at Rollins, I drew heavily on the resources available to me at Rollins. The best support I received was from the professors in my department, who listened to the kind of work I was interested in and gave me a short list of highly respected companies that would make excellent places to work¿ My decision to get my graduate degree at Rollins was the single most important decision of my career, and one of the most important decisions of my life.

James Wrocklage

Health Policy and Management (HPM)