Anil Makam, MD, MAS, is a hospital medicine physician and nationally recognized health services researcher whose work sits at the intersection of hospital medicine, aging, and post-acute care. He is an expert on long-term acute care hospitals (LTACHs), inspired by a striking observation early in his career: while working in Dallas and San Francisco, he cared for similarly sick and frail hospitalized older adults—but only in Dallas did LTACHs play a central role in their care. This contrast sparked a research agenda examining when, why, and how LTACHs are used, whether they help patients recover, and patients' prognosis after transfer.
Dr. Makam uses Medicare claims, electronic health records, and prospective cohort data to study the real-world effectiveness, outcomes, and variation in care—most notably through his leadership of RAFT COVID, a national multicenter recovery cohort. His research has been funded by the National Institute on Aging and the Donaghue Foundation.
Dr. Makam also investigates outcomes, resource use, and prognosis for a range of common hospital conditions—including pneumonia, sepsis, heart disease, kidney failure, and diabetes—as well as quality and safety issues like hospital-acquired anemia, readmissions, and vital sign monitoring. He has a strong commitment to studying the needs of populations served by safety-net settings, including people who are uninsured, incarcerated, undocumented, or living with addiction.
As Director of Research & Analytics for his Division, Dr. Makam is helping build a “learning health system” that turns everyday clinical care into a continuous engine for improvement and discovery.
A passionate clinician educator, Dr. Makam is nationally known for his work in evidence-based medicine (EBM), critical appraisal, and high-value care. His published framework for practicing EBM appeared as a State-of-the-Art review in Circulation, and he has written extensively on high-value care and the interpretation of clinical studies. He co-directs UCSF’s CTSI K-Grant Writing Workshop, serves as an Inquiry Advisor for UCSF medical students, and mentors faculty and trainees across disciplines.
Dr. Makam has served as Associate Editor for the Journal of Hospital Medicine (2015–2023), peer reviews for top-tier journals and MedPAC reports to Congress, and contributes as an Evidence Author for the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), a key voice in evaluating the value of new medical therapies. He also maintains an active presence on Twitter, where he engages in thoughtful dialogue on medicine and health policy.
His research has been published in leading journals such as JAMA, Annals of Internal Medicine, and JAMA Internal Medicine; cited by the Institute of Medicine and Wikipedia; and featured in The New York Times. He is the recipient of several national research awards, including the Arti Hurria Memorial Award from the American Geriatrics Society.