Oslo, Norway — June 30, 2026 — The Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM) presented its highest career honor, the 2026 Career Achievement Award, to Professor Uwe Siebert, MPH, MSc, ScD, recognizing his decades of transformative contributions to medical decision making through groundbreaking research, international leadership, education, and service.
The award was presented during the Leadership Awards Session at the SMDM 48th Annual Meeting in Oslo, Norway, by Professor Mark Bounthavong, PharmD, PhD, Chair of the SMDM Awards Committee and Professor of Clinical Pharmacy at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of California, San Diego.
The SMDM Career Achievement Award recognizes distinguished senior investigators whose sustained contributions have significantly advanced the science and practice of medical decision making. Recipients are selected through a competitive nomination process following an open call and are evaluated by the Society’s Awards Committee.
“It was a tremendous honor to present the Society for Medical Decision Making’s 2026 Career Achievement Award to Professor Uwe Siebert,” said Professor Bounthavong. “Throughout his career, Professor Siebert has exemplified the qualities this award celebrates, scientific excellence, methodological innovation, visionary leadership, and an unwavering commitment to improving healthcare decisions through rigorous evidence. His work has influenced researchers, clinicians, policymakers, and generations of trainees around the world, making him exceptionally deserving of this recognition.”
Professor Siebert serves as Professor of Public Health, Medical Decision Making and Health Technology Assessment and Head of the Institute of Public Health, Medical Decision Making and Health Technology Assessment at UMIT TIROL – University for Health Sciences and Health Technology in Austria. He is also Adjunct Professor of Health Policy and Management, and Epidemiology, at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and an affiliated researcher at the Center for Health Technology Assessment at Mass General Brigham, Harvard Medical School.
A physician by training, Professor Siebert began his career working in international public health projects in West Africa, Brazil, and Germany before pursuing training in public health, epidemiology, and decision sciences. He earned his Master of Public Health from the Munich School of Public Health and Epidemiology and both his Master of Science in Epidemiology and Doctor of Science in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard School of Public Health. Today, he directs Harvard’s internationally recognized summer course, Decision Analysis in Clinical Research, helping educate future leaders in health decision science.
Over more than three decades, Professor Siebert has become one of the world’s leading voices in medical decision making. His pioneering work in medical decision analysis, benefit-harm assessment, health economic evaluation, decision-analytic modeling, health technology assessment, epidemiology, and causal inference has advanced the science of evidence-based healthcare while directly informing clinical guidelines, cancer screening programs, health technology assessments, reimbursement decisions, and national health policies around the world.
His influence extends well beyond research. Professor Siebert is a Past President of SMDM and served as the 2025–2026 President of ISPOR – The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research. Throughout his career, he has advised governments, health technology assessment agencies, professional societies, and international organizations on evidence-based policy and healthcare decision making. He has authored more than 500 publications, including scientific articles, textbook chapters, policy briefs, and HTA reports, and serves in editorial leadership roles for several internationally recognized scientific journals.
Accepting the award, Professor Siebert reflected on the mentors, colleagues, students, and collaborators who shaped his career, emphasizing that scientific advancement is built not only on ideas but on the people who inspire, challenge, and support one another.
“I am deeply honored to receive this award, and I am truly grateful for this special recognition,” said Professor Siebert. “This award reflects not only my own work but also the dedication and expertise of my entire team. It also reflects the support, encouragement, and inspiration I have received throughout my career from my students, fellows, colleagues, mentors, friends, and my family. SMDM has been an extraordinary intellectual home, and I am grateful to this community for the opportunities it has given me to learn, collaborate, and grow.”
One of the most poignant moments of Professor Siebert’s remarks came as he reflected on the profound influence of his longtime mentor, Milton Weinstein, PhD, whose Harvard course first introduced him to decision analysis and ultimately shaped the direction of his career. Professor Weinstein received SMDM’s Career Achievement Award in 1996, making Professor Siebert’s recognition especially meaningful as it com4es exactly thirty years after his mentor received the Society’s highest honor.
“Careers are built not only on ideas,” Professor Siebert reflected during his acceptance remarks, “but also on the people who inspire us, believe in us, and open doors.”
Throughout his address, Professor Siebert highlighted the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and working directly with healthcare decision-makers to translate research into meaningful improvements in patient care. Drawing on examples from his own career, he described how collaborative decision modeling informed national COVID-19 vaccination strategies and cancer screening policies, illustrating how rigorous decision science can have a lasting impact on healthcare systems and population health.
He concluded by encouraging the next generation of researchers to embrace collaboration across regions and disciplines and to remember that one of the most valuable skills in science is listening, to colleagues, patients, decision-makers, and one another.
Professor Siebert joins a distinguished group of Career Achievement Award recipients whose work has defined and advanced the field of medical decision making over the past three decades. Previous honorees include Anne Stiggelbout, John B. Wong, Dawn Stacey, Michael Kattan, Doug Coyle, Karen Kuntz, Murray Krahn, M.G. Myriam Hunink, Valerie Reyna, Ivar Kristiansen, Alvin Mushlin, Mark Roberts, Donald Redelmeier, Annette O’Connor, Howard Raiffa, J. Sanford (Sandy) Schwartz, Alan Garber, Barbara J. McNeil, Peter Wakker, David J. Spiegelhalter, Allan Detsky, Joseph Pliskin, Jerome P. Kassirer, Daniel Kahneman, George Torrance, John Eisenberg, Dennis Fryback, Harold Sox, Arthur Elstein, Milton Weinstein, and Stephen Pauker.
Photo: Beate Jahn, PhD, SMDM President (2025–2026); Professor Uwe Siebert, MPH, MSc, ScD, recipient of the 2026 SMDM Career Achievement Award; Mark Bounthavong, PharmD, PhD, Chair of the SMDM Awards Committee; and Milton Weinstein, PhD, recipient of the 1996 SMDM Career Achievement Award and Professor Siebert’s longtime mentor, following the presentation of SMDM’s highest career honor during the SMDM 48th Annual Meeting in Oslo, Norway, on June 30, 2026.