Few health experts have had the level of impact in both government and academia as the legendary Penn professor William Kissick. Between his fundamental role in designing Medicare, his pioneering efforts to join health care, policy, and economics at Penn, and his famous “Iron Triangle” theory that’s still taught today, Kissick was one of LDI’s most prominent health policy experts. His colleagues fondly remember him as “larger than life”, “always in the thick of the action”, and “like good jazz: loud and sweet”. After earning four degrees from Yale, Kissick began a stint with the federal government that involved him in everything from the 1964 landmark surgeon general’s tobacco warning, to the Regional Medical Programs in 1966, to being one of two physicians designing Medicare. And when he was recruited to Penn in 1968 by LDI founding director Robert Eilers, he brought his innovation here as well.

Setting a national academic precedent, Kissick came to Penn with professorships in both the School of Medicine and the Wharton School. He was named to LDI’s governing board, which within two years organized and launched the Wharton Health Care Management Program. When the program flourished and LDI became a national health economics leader, colleagues pointed to Kissick’s “pivotal role”, and “presence and expert guidance” as a key to success. Equally as important, Kissick was known for his love of mentoring students and introducing them to the importance of policy in medical care. While he  influenced school curricula – for example, by establishing the Department of Preventative and Community Medicine within the medical school – Kissick was also uniquely in touch with his students. He served as both a personal and professional mentor to students over his 31 years at Penn, many of whom went on to outstanding careers in their own right.

But perhaps Kissick is most famous for his “Iron Triangle” – the theorem that cost, access, and quality are the three competing elements that truly define any health care system. His argument – one that medical school professors and health policy experts still use today – was that any of the three elements can be improved, but only by compromising one or both of the others. Any health reform effort, therefore, must establish goals and make difficult choices and trade-offs.

William Kissick died in 2013, yet his legacy lives on. When he retired in 2001, the Wharton Health Care Management Alumni Association established the Kissick Scholarship Fund to honor the program’s most innovative students. And as today’s most prominent health policy leaders reflect on their own paths, they almost certainly have him to thank.