AHRQ Staff: Laura L. Sessums
Laura L. Sessums, J.D., M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Office of the Director
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Laura L. Sessums, J.D., M.D., is a national leader in primary care health policy and the implementation of advanced primary care. She became the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) chief medical officer, in August 2022. Prior to coming to AHRQ, she was the chief care transformation medical director for value-based care at Anthem.
While serving as the director of the Division of Advanced Primary Care at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation for 5 years, Dr. Sessums oversaw the Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) initiative, and then developed and implemented CPC+, then the largest multipayer initiative in primary care payment and delivery redesign. Previously, she worked in academic medicine as a clinician-educator, mostly at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (as a civilian), where she served as chief of the general medicine section. Her professional activities have been in the areas of healthcare policy and advocacy, medical education, senior medical administrative leadership, and scholarship at the intersection of law and medicine. Her research has focused on primary care, particularly in the ethical and legal domains. She is a practicing general internist, providing care for the uninsured in the Washington, DC, area.
Dr. Sessums completed her internship and residency in internal medicine at Duke University Medical Center and obtained her M.D. from Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Prior to starting her medical career, she obtained her J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School and practiced law at Arnold & Porter for 7 years. She graduated from Duke University with a B.S. in psychology.
