Ming Tai-Seale

Ming Tai-Seale, Ph.D., MPH, is a senior investigator at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation's Research Institute. Her research focuses on (1) the effect of financial and organizational incentives on practice behavior of health care providers and the subsequent impact on cost, utilization and quality of health care, (2) the economics of health care disparities, and (3) the economics of mental health services in primary care. Dr. Tai-Seale has contributed to the understanding of time allocation decision making in biomedical and mental health care in primary care practices. 

Her current research includes application of theoretical perspectives and empirical methods from economics and communications research to the area of physician agency. Her research has been funded by agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality and Veterans Health Administration. Her current research project "Mental Health Communication in Elderly Primary Care Visits and Economic Outcomes" is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH081098). She will be conducting a study of the transformation process and outcomes of Palo Alto Medical Foundation as a NCQA-certified patient-centered medical home with funding from AHRQ. 

Dr. Tai-Seale has won the Article-of-the-Year Award from the AcademyHealth as well as a career development award from NIMH. She is an editorial board member of Health Services Research and past chair of the Health Economics Interest Group of AcademyHealth. Further, she has been serving as a grant proposal reviewer for various federal agencies including NIH and AHRQ. In addition to contributing numerous original research articles to peer-reviewed journals, her research has been discussed in hearings in the U.S. Senate and in the popular press such as the New York Times, Washington Post, O Magazine, Good Housekeeping and Ladies' Home Journal. 

Dr. Tai-Seale earned her Ph.D. in Health Services with a cognate in economics from the University of California at Los Angeles, MPH from Emory University and received medical training at Jiaotong University School of Medicine (previously Shanghai Second Medical University) in Shanghai, China.