Marilyn Bergner, 59; A Pioneer In Research Of Health Services

Marilyn Bergner, an international leader in health-services research and former University of Washington professor, believed in quality of life and continuously questioned the benefits from medical care.

She wondered, for instance, what life must be like for someone who suffered a brain injury or heart attack, about the effectiveness of emergency medical services and home care versus hospital care for certain chronic diseases.

Lawrence Bergner described his wife as a brilliant woman who loved research and teaching.

"She was also a terrific gardener and cook," said Bergner. "After 39 years, I'll miss the closeness, the mutual interests, the telepathic talking we shared, where I'd say one word and she knew what I was thinking. She was a fantastic person."

After a three-year battle with ovarian cancer, Mrs. Bergner died Saturday at her home in Silver Spring, Md. She was 59.

Mrs. Bergner was born and reared in Brooklyn. She studied sociology at Brooklyn College, where she met her husband.

The couple married in 1953 after Mrs. Bergner graduated. She worked at an ad agency while her husband finished medical school at New York University. In 1959, the Bergners moved to Poitiers, France, where Bergner served in the U.S. Army and his wife attended the local university.

After returning to New York, Mrs. Bergner attended Columbia University, graduating in 1970 with a Ph.D. in socio-medical science.

For the next two years, Mrs. Bergner was assistant to the vice president of the Health and Hospitals Corporation of New York City.

In 1972, the Bergners moved to Seattle, where Mrs. Bergner joined the UW School of Public Health, teaching program evaluation, and Bergner was director of the Seattle/King County Department of Health.

At the university, with psychologist Ruth Bobbit and Drs. Betty and John Gilson, Mrs. Bergner developed the Sickness Impact Profile (SIP), a widelyused questionnaire that measures the quality of health-care programs.

Mrs. Bergner left the UW in 1986 and joined the faculty of Johns Hopkins University as professor of Health Policy and Management, continuing her research and teaching in health services.

Donald Patrick, a friend from Columbia and colleague who succeeded Mrs. Bergner at the UW, described her as a critical thinker and brilliant woman whose own zest for life touched him.

"We had some really terrific meals together throughout the world," Patrick said. "She was an absolutely great cook, a terrific quality-of-life person."

Besides her husband, Mrs. Bergner is survived by sons Daniel of New York City and Robert of Montreal, and her mother, Clara Neufeld, also of New York.