Barbara Joyce McNeil

Barbara Joyce McNeil is an American physician who was the founding director of the department of health care policy at Harvard Medical School.

Early life and education

McNeil was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1941. She graduated from Emmanuel College with a degree in chemistry in 1962. She then studied medicine at Harvard Medical School, graduating in 1966. She did a one-year internship in pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital, then began a doctorate program as a National Institutes of Health research fellow at Harvard. She finished her PhD in biological chemistry in 1972. She returned to clinical work, doing a residency program in radiology at Brigham and Women's Hospital. McNeil has also conducted research into technology assessment and quality of care. A more recent study McNeil conducted was supported by the Department of Veterans. The study focused on the quality of care veterans with cardiac disease received; the study led to many quality of care changes for veterans with cardiac disease.