Dr. Wagner is a professor in the Department of Surgery at Stanford University and director of the Health Economics Resource Center at the Palo Alto VA. He has worked for more than 25 years in health care delivery systems where economics and clinical care intersect, focusing his research on costs, efficiency and access.

He is particularly interested in developing learning health care systems that provide high-value care and using those systems to identify what is working well and where improvements and efficiencies can be made. Over the past two decades, he has mentored more than 50 individuals. Since 2015, he has co-directed the Big Data Fellowship, supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Cancer Institute, which trains postdoctoral scholars.

He has published more than 230 peer-reviewed papers and has served as a scientific consultant to the National Institutes of Health and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Dr. Wagner currently serves on the editorial boards of Health Services Research, Medical Decision Making and the American Journal of Health Promotion.