Scott W. Atlas
Senior Fellow

Expertise: U.S. health care system, health care systems of emerging nations, use of advanced medical technology

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Scott W. Atlas, MD, is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, a professor of radiology and chief of neuroradiology at the Stanford University Medical Center, and senior fellow by courtesy at the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford.

Atlas's research interests are domestic and global health care policy, particularly the role of government and the free market in pricing, quality, and access, including the effects of the changing marketplace on technology innovations. During the 2008 campaign, Atlas was a senior adviser and the coordinator of the Health Policy Team for one of the major presidential candidates. At the Freeman-Spogli Institute, he studies the evolving health systems of emerging economies and recently obtained a Fulbright award to explore China’s health care solutions. Atlas also participated in the World Bank’s Commission on Growth and Development. His publications include "Relationship between HMO Market Share and the Diffusion and Use of Advanced MRI Technologies" (2004), with L.C. Baker, “Expanding CT and MRI Availability, Imaging Utilization in the Medicare Population, and the Challenge of Measuring Value” (2008) with L.C. Baker and C, Afendulis, and Power to the Patient: Selected Health Care Issues and Policy Solutions (Hoover Institution Press, 2005).

Atlas is the editor of the textbook Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain and Spine, now in its fourth edition; it has been translated into Mandarin, Spanish, and Portuguese. A member of the boards of many scientific societies and journals over the past decade, he has authored more than 120 scientific publications in leading journals on applications of MRI in neurologic diseases. Atlas also lectures throughout the world on advances in MRIs of the brain and the key economic issues related to such technology-based advances. Recognized as a leader in both education and clinical research, he has been on the Nominating Committee for the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology for several years and received numerous awards and honors in recognition of his leadership.

Atlas received a BS degree in biology from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and an MD degree from the University of Chicago.