The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care. His 1973 research in the distribution and utilization of healthcare services demonstrated wide variations across geographies. Seeking an explanation, he began documenting commonly used medical practices - and their results. From this stemmed the Atlas, and most other research (and journalism) in outcomes-based medicine and cost analysis. Work for which Dr. Wennberg is less well known seeks to engage and enlighten patients in their treatment choices. In 1989 he co-founded the nonprofit Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making, which distributes "objective scientific information" about medical procedures with interactive media. An example: With support from Wennberg's nonprofit, Massachusetts General mails video tutorials to patients about procedures they are considering, or will soon undergo, including the outcomes data. Think: A Netflix for healthcare. No ivory tower academic, this Jack.

On "What's wrong with the U.S Health-Care System?":

"Well for one thing we're throwing a lot of money at it and we don't [know] what we're getting out of it. [In] the case of the management of chronic illness ... we're actually seeing an increased risk of earlier death associated with high intensity care. And people will ask, ''Well, how could that possibly be the case?" Well, first of all you have to ask the question, what's the science that says that more is better at the patient level? And as I've tried to say many times in my career, the evidence simply isn't there."