Inmaculada Hernandez Delso

Inmaculada Hernandez Delso is a tenured Professor at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Her research program is situated at the intersection of health services research, pharmaceutical policy, and pharmacoepidemiology. She is a nationally recognized scholar who has made significant contributions to understanding drug pricing, rebates, and access, particularly within Medicare.

Dr. Hernandez's research focuses on the complex dynamics of pharmaceutical pricing, transparency in the drug supply chain, and the impact of policy on patient access and outcomes. Her work has been pivotal in quantifying the disconnect between list prices and net prices due to confidential rebates, and she has developed innovative methods to track cash flow in the pharmaceutical market. Her research areas include drug pricing, Medicare, anticoagulation, stroke prevention, claims data analysis, and health equity.

Her extensive body of work, with numerous publications in high-impact journals like JAMA and Health Affairs, reveals a strong trend of analyzing pharmaceutical spending, policy interventions (especially Medicare-related), and health disparities. Her recent articles frequently examine the implications of the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, drug shortages, and the socioeconomic and racial factors influencing access to medications and care.

• National Academy of Medicine Fellow in Pharmacy (2022-2024)
• Forbes 30 Under 30 (2018)
• Academy Health Alice S. Hersh Emerging Leader Award (2021)
• Seema S. Sonnad Emerging Leader in Managed Care Research Award (2019)
• American College of Cardiology Fellow (2018)
• American Heart Association Fellow (2019)

Dr. Hernandez is a principal investigator (PI) or multi-PI (MPI) on several significant research grants from organizations including The Commonwealth Fund, the Skaggs Family Foundation, the West Health Policy Center, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Her grants focus on integrating net prices with clinical effectiveness, the health impacts of extreme heat and wildfire smoke, pharmaceutical discounting dynamics, and the effects of the pandemic on atrial fibrillation care. She has testified before the Senate Finance Committee, and her research has been cited in key policy reports from ASPE, GAO, MedPAC, CDC, and FDA. She is currently on leave from her academic appointment.

Her work is highly collaborative, often involving geographic information systems (GIS) analyses of health care access and spatial disparities. She has led and participated in numerous studies on patient adherence, treatment patterns, and the real-world effectiveness and safety of medications, particularly for cardiovascular conditions like atrial fibrillation.