Research Program

Health Policy Simulation

The Schaeffer Center’s health policy simulation work has set the gold standard for researchers to effectively model future trends in health and longevity. 

Program Leadership

  • Director, Health Policy Simulation, USC Schaeffer Center
    Research Assistant Professor, USC Price School of Public Policy

The Future Elderly Model

The pioneering Future Elderly Model (FEM) models trends in health, functional status, health spending, pharmaceutical innovation, labor supply and earnings for individuals over age 50 in the U.S. FEM has grown in reach and effectiveness from its inception in 1997 to today, assisted by funding support over the years from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the National Institutes of Health, Pfizer and the U.S. Department of Labor. In addition, the microsimulation team has created a global network of collaborators who are building out country-level FEM-based models in 17 countries. An extension of FEM, the Future Adult Model (FAM), models similar functions for individuals ages 25 to 50.

Future Elderly Model

The Future Elderly Model (FEM) is an economic-demographic microsimulation developed over the last decade.
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Future Adult Model

The Future Adult Model (FAM) is an economic-demographic microsimulation that extends the FEM to the entire adult population in the United States.
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Featured Research and Perspectives

Journal Articles > Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia

The Burden of Cognitive Impairment 

Using microsimulation, researchers estimated the burden of cognitive impairment (ADRD and/or MCI) over remaining life years above 50 overall and by disease progression, age of onset, and sociodemographic subgroups for a nationally representative sample of Americans (age≥50) with cognitive status information in the Health and Retirement Study (2000-2016).

Microsimulation Researchers

  • Dana Goldman, PhD

    Dean and C. Erwin and Ione L. Piper Chair, USC Sol Price School of Public Policy
    Co-Director, USC Schaeffer Center
    Distinguished Professor of Public Policy, Pharmacy, and Economics, USC

  • Research Scientist, USC Schaeffer Center

  • Research Scientist, USC Schaeffer Center

  • USC Presidential Scholar-in-Residence, USC Schaeffer Center
    Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, University of Chicago

  • Professor, USC Sol Price School of Public Policy
    Co-Director, Aging and Cognition Program, USC Schaeffer Center
    Co-Director, CeASES ADRD and AD-RCMAR