Health and Medicine

FSI’s researchers assess health and medicine through the lenses of economics, nutrition and politics. They’re studying and influencing public health policies of local and national governments and the roles that corporations and nongovernmental organizations play in providing health care around the world. Scholars look at how governance affects citizens’ health, how children’s health care access affects the aging process and how to improve children’s health in Guatemala and rural China. They want to know what it will take for people to cook more safely and breathe more easily in developing countries.

FSI professors investigate how lifestyles affect health. What good does gardening do for older Americans? What are the benefits of eating organic food or growing genetically modified rice in China? They study cost-effectiveness by examining programs like those aimed at preventing the spread of tuberculosis in Russian prisons. Policies that impact obesity and undernutrition are examined; as are the public health implications of limiting salt in processed foods and the role of smoking among men who work in Chinese factories. FSI health research looks at sweeping domestic policies like the Affordable Care Act and the role of foreign aid in affecting the price of HIV drugs in Africa.

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The Asia Health Policy Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center is pleased to announce that Dr. Young Kyung Do has been awarded the %fellowship1% for 2008-2009.

Dr. Do is currently completing his Ph.D. in health policy and administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health. He is particularly interested in policy challenges associated with rapid population aging in East Asia. His dissertation examines informal care in South Korea and its effects on health care use and caregivers’ labor force participation. Dr. Do has also earned M.D. and Master of Public Health degrees from Seoul National University (in 1997 and 2003, respectively). He earned board certification in preventive medicine from the Korean Medical Association in 2004. While at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dr. Do has participated in several research projects and published collaborative research on topics ranging from methodology for causal inference to empirical analysis of disparities in health care use.

While at Shorenstein APARC, Dr. Do will undertake comparative study of public long-term care insurance in Japan and South Korea. He will also begin comparative empirical analysis of the effect of long-term care insurance on informal caregiving, elderly health care, and informal caregivers’ labor force participation in Japan and South Korea. Dr. Do will work closely with the Center’s program on Asian health policy on such activities as the colloquium series on health and aging in the Asia-Pacific and an “Aging Asia” conference.

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Rapid population aging in many Asian countries poses an increased burden of care for elderly people with disabilities. Traditionally, care for the disabled elderly was provided by family members co-residing or living nearby. However, declining fertility rates, eroding social norms, and growing rates of labor force participation among females have changed the overall picture of informal care. 

One important policy question is whether informal caregiving affects caregivers' labor force participation. This question is particularly relevant for rapidly developing economies including newly industrialized countries, because a shrinking working-age population is another major concern with population aging. Providing different answers to this question leads to different policy implications for long-term care policy and labor market policy. 

Most of the existing literature on this issue comes from the United States and Europe. Using data from the first wave of the "Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging", Do's research not only provides results from a less-studied Asian society, but also takes into account different patterns of living arrangements and labor force participation. His talk will deal with the methodological issue of endogeneity between informal caregiving and labor force participation, and explore gender and age group differences.

Young Kyung Do is currently completing his PhD in health policy and administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health. He has also earned both an MD and a master of public health degrees from Seoul National University (in 1997 and 2003, respectively). Young earned board certification in preventive medicine from the Korean Medical Association in 2004.

Daniel and Nancy Okimoto Conference Room

Young K. Do Speaker
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In early 2007, CSIS launched an expert task force to examine the growing involvement of the Department of Defense as a direct provider of “non-traditional” security assistance, concentrated in counterterrorism, capacity building, stabilization and reconstruction, and humanitarian relief. The task force set out to shed light on what drives this trend, including the new global threat environment; assess what was happening at the same time in the diplomatic and developmental realms; evaluate DOD performance in conducting its expanded missions; and consider the impact of the Pentagon’s enlarged role on broader U.S. national security, foreign policy and development interests. From the outset, the task force sought to generate concrete, practical recommendations to Congress and the White House on reforms and legislation that will create a better and more sustainable balance between military and civilian tools.

J. Stephen Morrison joined CSIS in early 2000. He directs the CSIS Africa Program, the CSIS Task Force on HIV/AIDS (begun in 2001) and most recently co-directed a CSIS Task Force on non-traditional U.S. security assistance. In his role as director of the Africa Program, he has conducted studies on the United States’ rising energy stakes in Africa, counter-terrorism, the stand-up of the U.S. Africa Command, and implications for U.S. foreign policy. In 2005–2006, he was co-director of the Council on Foreign Relations Independent Task Force on Africa, ‘Beyond Humanitarianism: A Strategic U.S. Approach Toward Africa.’ Immediately prior to that, he was executive secretary of the Africa Policy Advisory Panel, commissioned by the U.S. Congress and overseen by then–Secretary of State Colin Powell. From 2005 up to the present, he has directed multi-phase work on China’s expansive engagement in Africa. His work on HIV/AIDS and related global health issues has involved multiple missions to China, Russia, India, Vietnam and Africa, and most recently, a series of focused studies on the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. He publishes widely, testifies often before Congress, and is a frequent commentator in major media on U.S. foreign policy, Africa, foreign assistance, and global public health. From 1996 through early 2000, Morrison served on the secretary of state’s policy planning staff, where he was responsible for African affairs and global foreign assistance issues. From 1993 to 1995, he conceptualized and launched USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives, which operates in countries emerging from protracted internal conflict and misrule. From 1992 until mid-1993, he was the U.S. democracy and governance adviser in Ethiopia and Eritrea. In the period 1987 to 1991, he was senior staff member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa. Morrison holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Wisconsin, has been an adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies since 1994, and is a graduate magna cum laude of Yale College. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

CISAC Conference Room

J. Stephen Morrison Executive Director Speaker HIV/AIDS Task Force and Director, Africa Program, Center for Strategic & International Studies
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The Comparative Health Policy Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center is proud to present a panel on “Innovation, Regulation, and Pharmaceutical Policy in the Asia-Pacific.” The panel will include presentations by F.M. Scherer (Harvard University); Henry G. Grabowski (Duke University); Mingzhi Li (Tsinghua University, PRC); Yiyong Yang (National Reform and Development Commission, PRC); Bong-min Yang (Seoul National University, ROK); John H. Barton (Stanford Law School); and pharmaceutical industry representatives.

The session is the opening to a conference on “Pharmaceuticals in the Asia-Pacific: Prescribing Cultures, Industry Dynamics, and Health Policy” hosted by the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University, March 7-8, 2008. The Friday morning session is free and open to the public.

The remainder of the conference is for the co-authors of a forthcoming book on Pharmaceuticals in the Asia-Pacific and thus by invitation only.

Daniel and Nancy Okimoto Conference Room

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Karen Eggleston
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The Asian health policy program is pleased to announce that a conference on "Provider Payment Incentives in the Asia Pacific" will be held November 7-8, 2008, at the China Center for Economic Research at Peking University in Beijing, P.R. China.

Organizers of the conference include health economists at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University; the China Center for Economic Research at Peking University; Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management Department of Economics; and Seoul National University School of Public Health.

We welcome empirical and theoretical research analyzing how reimbursement incentives shape health and healthcare behavior in the economies of the Asia Pacific. We especially welcome evaluations of policy reforms and natural experiments impacting health service provider incentives. The papers can examine payment incentives in one country, region, or healthcare setting, or include comparative analysis of two or more regions in the Asia Pacific.

Please email papers or extended abstracts (about 500 words) to Karen Eggleston. The submissions deadline is June 1, 2008. The selection committee will notify authors by July 1, 2008.

We also encourage inquiries from researchers that may have access to relevant payment reform data but are interested in support regarding their research design or analytic methods. We will work with you to identify appropriate collaborators and possible financial support for completing the research.

Authors of papers selected for presentation will receive partial subsidy for their participation in the conference as well as opportunity to publish their research in a special volume through the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University or in a special issue of an English-language health policy journal.

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The Honorable Richard L. Armitage served as Deputy Secretary of State under Colin Powell from 2001-2005. His additional public service experience includes serving as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, Special Mediator for Water in the Middle East, and Special Emissary to Jordan's King Hussein during the 1991 Gulf War. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, and has won numerous distinctions, including the Department of State Distinguished Service Award and the Presidential Citizens Medal.

In a telling presentation about the challenges of diplomacy and providing humanitarian aid, Armitage will discuss several examples of U.S. humanitarian assistance, detailing how such actions relate to both policy goals and our nature as a generous nation. He will specifically address both HIV/AIDS assistance and the Millennium Challenge Account, as well as traditional U.S. aid mechanisms, describing his own experiences as the coordinator for U.S. Assistance to the former Soviet Union.

Sponsored by Stanford in Government. Co-sponsored by The Ford Dorsey Program in International Policy Studies, The Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, the International Relations Program, the Stanford Journal of International Relations, and the Stanford Roosevelt Society.

Kresge Auditorium

The Honorable Richard L. Armitage Former Deputy Secretary of State, U.S. Department of State Speaker
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The Asia Health Policy Program works with other researchers at Stanford and several countries of the Asia-Pacific to analyze prominent issues in population aging, child health, and control of infectious disease. Examples include comparative study of long-term care insurance and informal caregiving; collaborative study of health and healthcare access for children with special health needs; and a research project focusing on controlling tuberculosis and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in Northeast Asia.

Funded in 2009, the Program on Human Rights (PHR) is a unique intersection of the social sciences and public-policy formation and implementation. It provides a forum for the dozens of Stanford faculty who work in disciplines that engage or border on human rights (including law, philosophy, political science, education, human biology, public health, history and religious studies) and the more than 30 student-initiated human rights groups on campus. It seeks to relate the research and findings of the academic disciplines to domestic and human rights policy today.

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