Jie Chen

Dr. Jie Chen is Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the University of Maryland School of Public Health and Director of the UMD Center on Aging. She studies aging health, mental health, Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, and the design of integrated care systems that improve care and quality of life for older adults. She is also incorporating artificial intelligence into her research to better understand system performance, support caregiving, and strengthen care for aging populations. Dr. Chen founded the HAPPY Lab in 2017 where her work has examined how delivery system innovations, including Accountable Care Organizations and health information technology, improve collaboration between hospitals and community organizations.

Dr. Chen has more than 22 years of experience working with large secondary datasets and Medicare claims and has authored more than 200 scholarly works. She has secured multiple major NIH awards from the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. She established a comprehensive data hub for one hundred percent CMS Medicare claims that integrates survey data, geographic measures, and policy indicators to support research on healthcare utilization, cost, access, and aging health. Her recent work uses artificial intelligence to examine system resilience, support caregivers, improve Medicare outcomes, and strengthen aging and dementia care systems.

As Director of the Center on Aging, Dr. Chen leads interdisciplinary collaborations focused on advancing innovative models of care for older adults. She also directs SUNSHINE, an NIH funded national aging resilience center supported through the NIA DECC P30 program. SUNSHINE brings together researchers from health services, economics, engineering, artificial intelligence, and community organizations to study how systems and technologies can improve care for aging populations. Through this work, Dr. Chen contributes to emerging efforts to apply artificial intelligence in aging and health systems by focusing on real-world care delivery, caregiving support, and system performance. Her research provides practical insights that inform care models and strengthen support for older adults.