Leah Vriesman

Leah Vriesman is Professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health's Department of Health Policy and Management. Dr. Vriesman is also the Associate Dean of Academic & Faculty Affairs at UCLA Extension.

She teaches Healthcare Strategy for the Executive Master of Public Health and in the Master of Healthcare Administration programs.

As a 2010-2011 U.S. Fulbright grant recipient and German Scholar Exchange award winner, Dr. Vriesman spent a year in Neu Ulm, Bavaria. She was at the University of Applied Sciences teaching International Healthcare Management and Strategic Marketing to German physicians studying for their Healthcare MBA. She's traveled as a lecturer to Mzumbe University in Tanzania twice to bring these same topics to East African physicians studying for their MBA.

Dr. Vriesman is also President and Founder of Excel Research, LLC, a strategy and leadership development consulting firm. Specializing in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, Excel Research primarily conducts executive leadership, strategic analysis, and market trend projections. Prior to founding Excel Research, Dr. Vriesman was Senior Director of North American Business Development within the Medical Technology Practice at The Lewin Group, an international health policy and research corporation, and subsidiary of Quintiles Transnational.

She was UCLA's Co-Principal Investigator for the National Center for Healthcare Leadership, studying the relationship between graduate health management curriculums with educational outstanding new leaders in the field. Her other particular areas of career interest are comparative merger & acquisition theory between the public and private sectors, pharm-biotech market strategies, and innovative design workshops.

Dr. Vriesman received her PhD in Medical Sociology from UCLA and her MHA and MBA in Strategy from the University of Minnesota-Minneapolis.

Selected Publications

• Gewald, H., Vriesman, L., and Mondaca, A.N. “An International Comparison of Factors Inhibiting Physicians’ Use of Hospital Information Systems: Germany, USA, and Chile”.  Submitted to confirm – International Conference on Information Resources, May 2017, Santiago, Chile.
• Gewald, H., Gewald, C., and Vriesman, L. “Inhibitors to Working with Hospital Information Systems – A Cross-National Analysis”, Published by AMCIS, August 2016.
• Luck, J., Vriesman, L. and Fu, P. (2013) “Chapter 14: Health Information Technology” in Changing the U.S. Healthcare System, 4th ed. G. Kominski, Editor.
• Gewald, H., Weeger, A. and Vriesman, L. 2011. Do Risk Perceptions Influence Physicians’ Resistance to Use Electronic Medical Records?: An Exploratory Research in German Hospitals. Paper submitted to AMCIS – Americans Conference on Information Systems, for May 2011 meeting.
• Vriesman, L. 2001. VHA Facility Integration: Changes in Operational Effectiveness and Perceived Quality, 1993-1997. Doctoral Dissertation. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms, Inc.
• Vriesman, L. and Mazonson, P. 1998. Improving pharmaceutical utilization for Medicare enrollees proves difficult. TIPS on Managed Care 3(4), 15-20.
• VanDeusan Lukas, C., Mittman, B., Vriesman, L., et al. 1998. Characteristics and structures of VHA integrated facilities. Abstract presented to the Dept of Veterans Affairs’ Sixteenth Annual HSR&D Service Meeting. Washington, D.C.
• Yano, E., Mittman, B., Vriesman, L., et al. 1998. “Effects of VHA facility integrations: Preliminary results.” Abstract presented to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Sixteenth Annual HSR&D Service Meeting. Washington, D.C.
• Mittman, B., VanDeusan Lukas, C., Hernandez, A., MacDonald, J., Vriesman, L., et al. 1998. Planning and implementing facility integrations in VHA: Alternative approaches. Abstract presented to the Dept of VA Sixteenth Annual HSR&D Service Meeting. Washington, D.C.