Brennan Spiegel

Dr. Brennan Spiegel, MD, MSHS, is director of Health Services Research for Cedars-Sinai and Professor of Medicine and Public Health at UCLA. He directs the Cedars-Sinai Center for Outcomes Research and Education (CS-CORE), a multidisciplinary team that investigates how digital health technologies; including wearable biosensors, smartphone applications, virtual reality (VR) and social media; can strengthen the patient-doctor bond, improve outcomes and save money. CS-CORE unites clinicians, computer scientists, engineers, statisticians and health services researchers to invent, test and implement digital innovations, always focusing on the value of technology to patients and their providers. His team developed one of largest and most widely-documented medical VR programs at Cedars-Sinai, and his work has helped to support a new field of medicine called Medical Extended Reality, in which doctors use immersive technologies like VR to help treat conditions ranging from pain, to anxiety and depression, to irritable bowel syndrome.

Spiegel has published numerous best-selling medical textbooks, editorials and more than 230 articles in peer-reviewed journals. He is listed in the Onalytica "Top 100 Influencer" lists for digital health and virtual reality. His digital health research has been featured by major media outlets, including Bloomberg, CBS News, Forbes, Huffington Post, LA Times, NBC News, Reuters, The Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. Dr. Spiegel published the book "How Immersive Therapeutics Will Revolutionize Medicine" (Basic Books, NY, NY), which was named by Wired Magazine as one of its top 8 science books of 2020.

Beyond his focus on digital health innovations, Spiegel conducts psychometric, health-economic, epidemiologic and qualitative research across a wide range of healthcare topics. His research team has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Hearst Foundation, State of California Precision Medicine Program, PCORI, Veterans Administration and industry sources. Spiegel is editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Gastroenterology, the leading clinical gastroenterology journal in North America. He was among the first group of clinical researchers to examine the gastrointestinal manifestations of COVID-19. He continues to practice clinical medicine and maintains an academic teaching practice at Cedars-Sinai. A prolific speaker, Spiegel is frequently invited to present on his areas of expertise at national and international events.

Dr. Spiegel earned his bachelor's degree from Tufts University, his medical degree from New York Medical College where he received Alpha Omega Alpha honors, and his master's from the University of California, Los Angeles Fielding School of Public Health. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Cedars-Sinai and his fellowship at UCLA Medical Center.

Areas of Interest

• Decision analysis / healthcare decision making
• Cost-effectiveness analysis
• Patient reported outcomes (PROs)
• Clinical trial design
• Patient-provider portals / electronic health records (EHRs)
• Social media in healthcare 
• Wireless healthcare technologies
• Colon cancer screening
• Managing chronic diseases
• Gastrointestinal disorders      
• Developing quality indicators (QIs)
• Threat detection

Selected Courses

• HPM 239A: Decision Analysis and Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
• HPM 239B: Advanced Topics in Decision Analysis and Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
• HPM 441: Health Analytics: Identifying, Collecting, and Analyzing Big Data in Healthcare

Selected Courses

• Spiegel BMR, Vakil NB, Ofman JJ.  Endoscopy for acute non-variceal upper gastrointestinal tract hemorrhage: is sooner better?  A systematic review.  Archives of Internal Medicine 2001; 161:1393-1404.
• Spiegel BMR, Vakil NB, Ofman JJ.  Dyspepsia management in primary care: a decision analysis of competing strategies.  Gastroenterology 2002;122:1270-1285 [with editorial]  
• Spiegel BMR, Ofman JJ, Vakil NB.  Minimizing recurrent peptic ulcer hemorrhage after endoscopic hemostasis: the cost-effectiveness of competing strategies.  American Journal of Gastroenterology 2003; 98:86-97.            
• Spiegel BMR, Targownik LE, Karsan HA, Dulai GS, Gralnek IM.  Endoscopic screening for esophageal varices in cirrhosis: is it ever cost-effective?  Hepatology 2003:37:366-77. [with editorial] [113 citations]
• Spiegel BMR, Targownik LE, Dulai GS, Gralnek IM.  The cost-effectiveness of cyclooxygenase-2 selective inhibitors in the management of chronic arthritis.  Annals of Internal Medicine 2003;138:795-806.
• Spiegel BMR, DeRosa VP, Gralnek IM, Wang V, Dulai GS.  Testing for celiac sprue in diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome: a cost-effectiveness analysis.  Gastroenterology 2004;126:1721-32.
• Spiegel BMR, Targownik LE, DeRosa V, Dulai GS, Gralnek IM, Chiou CF. The quality of published health economic analyses in digestive diseases: a systematic review and quantitative appraisal.  Gastroenterology 2004; 127:403-411.
• Spiegel BMR, Gralnek IM, Mayer EB, Bolus R, Dulai GS, Chang L, Naliboff B.  Clinical determinants of health-related quality of life in patients with irritable bowel syndrome.  Archives of Internal Medicine 2004; 164:1773-1780.
• Spiegel BMR, Younossi ZM, Hays RD, Revicki D, Robbins S, Kanwal F.  The impact of hepatitis C on health related quality of life: a systematic review of the literature.  Hepatology 2005; 41:790-800.
• Spiegel BMR, Chiou CF, Ofman JJ.  Minimizing complications from nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs: the cost-effectiveness of competing strategies in varying risk groups.  Arthritis Care and Research 2005;15:185-97.
• Kanwal F, Gralnek IM, Martin P, Dulai GS, Martin P, Spiegel BMR.  The cost-effectiveness of competing therapies in the management of chronic infection with hepatitis B virus.  Annals of Internal Medicine 2005; 142:821-31. 
• Spiegel BMR, Kanwal F, Naliboff B, Mayer E.  The impact of somatization on gastrointestinal health resource use in irritable bowel syndrome.  American Journal of Gastroenterology 2005; 100:2262-73.
• Spiegel BMR, Chen K, Broder M, Chiou Chiun-Fang.  Erythropoietic Growth Factors for the management of treatment-related anemia in hepatitis C: clinical and economic consequences.  Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology 2005; 3:1034-42.
• Spiegel BMR, Gralnek IM, Bolus R, Mayer E, Chang L, Dulai GS, Naliboff B.  Is a negative colonoscopy associated with improved health-related quality of life or reassurance in irritable bowel syndrome?  Gastrointestinal Endoscopy 2005; 62:892-899.
• Spiegel BMR, Farid M, Gralnek IM, Dulai GS, Kanwal F.  Comparing rates of dyspepsia with coxib versus NSAID+PPI combination therapy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.  American Journal of Medicine 2006; 119(5):448.e27-36.