Harold S. Luft, PhD, is Caldwell B. Esselstyn Professor Emeritus of Health Policy and Health Economics at the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco. He joined UCSF in 1978 and was Director of the PRL-IHPS from 1993 - 2007. In July 2008 he became Director of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute. He continues to be involved in some activities at PRL-IHPS.

His research and teaching have covered a wide range of areas, including medical care utilization, health maintenance organizations, hospital market competition, quality and outcomes of hospital care, risk assessment and risk adjustment, and health care reform. He has been involved in postdoctoral training for over 30 years, having been co-director or associate director for four training programs sponsored by UCSF and/or UC Berkeley. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine and served six years on the IOM Council. He was a member of and chaired the National Advisory Council of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (now the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality). He served on the board of AcademyHealth for 10 years and was co-editor of the journal Health Services Research. He has authored or co-authored and edited a number of books and published numerous articles in scientific journals. Professor Luft received his A.B., M.A., and Ph.D. in economics (specializing in health sector economics and public finance) from Harvard University.