Harold Gardner, M.D., making a difference in the medical profession

Harold “Hank” Gardner, M.D., College of Arts and Sciences alumnus and member of the A&S Board of Visitors, is founder, owner, and operator of Human Capital Management Services, Inc. (HCMS), a Wyoming health information corporation. HCMS provides research and consulting services to employers, government, and health organization clients to better manage their investments in health benefits and employee productivity. Among HCMS clients are several large national private employers, health organizations, and the state of Wyoming. 

Gardner also is chair of the Health as Human Capital Foundation (HHCF), a non-profit corporation Gardner created to provide education services to the marketplace using the Health as Human Capital conceptual model developed by Gardner and his spouse/partner Marilyn S. Fiske, MSM. Fiske also is a member of the A&S Board of Visitors, as well as a board member of the University of Wyoming Foundation. The Gardner-Fiske Health as Human Capital Model emphasizes understanding financial incentives embodied in sick leave, disability compensation, and health insurance benefits, which creates “extra” demand and inefficiency in health benefits, and provides a solution to the current health benefits cost and quality problem.

After attending UW, Gardner, an Afton, Wyoming native, graduated with honors from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and completed postdoctoral education in preventive and internal medicine and gastroenterology at Strong Memorial Hospital and the University of Rochester. He held professorships in medicine from 1971 to 1986 at the University of Rochester, Wayne State University in Detroit, and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. Currently, Gardner is an adjunct professor at the University of Wyoming Colleges of Business and Health Sciences.

HCMS and the HHCF are active collaborators with interdisciplinary research and education activates at UW involving faculty from the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Business, and Health Sciences. HCMS has employed UW student interns, and Gardner has taught a seminar in Health Economics and Health Policy.   

Gardner, who played UW basketball in the late 1950s, lives in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and often attends UW athletic events.