Stanford University

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.

POSTPONED: Behavioral Challenges to Solving “Easy” Problems in International Development: The Case of Micronutrient Deficiencies in India

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THIS EVENT HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED FOR FEBRUARY 27, 2015. IF YOU RSVP'D FOR THE FEBRUARY 13TH EVENT, PLEASE RESPOND INSTEAD TO THE FEBRUARY 27TH EVENT.

 

Updated event information available here.

Grant Miller

Encina Commons Room 101,
615 Crothers Way,
Stanford, CA 94305-6006

(650) 723-2714 (650) 723-1919
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Henry J. Kaiser, Jr. Professor
Professor, Health Policy
Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research
Professor, Economics (by courtesy)
grant_miller_vert.jpeg PhD, MPP

As a health and development economist based at the Stanford School of Medicine, Dr. Miller's overarching focus is research and teaching aimed at developing more effective health improvement strategies for developing countries.

His agenda addresses three major interrelated themes: First, what are the major causes of population health improvement around the world and over time? His projects addressing this question are retrospective observational studies that focus both on historical health improvement and the determinants of population health in developing countries today. Second, what are the behavioral underpinnings of the major determinants of population health improvement? Policy relevance and generalizability require knowing not only which factors have contributed most to population health gains, but also why. Third, how can programs and policies use these behavioral insights to improve population health more effectively? The ultimate test of policy relevance is the ability to help formulate new strategies using these insights that are effective.

Faculty Fellow, Stanford Center on Global Poverty and Development
Faculty Affiliate, Stanford Center for Latin American Studies
Faculty Affiliate, Woods Institute for the Environment
Faculty Affiliate, Interdisciplinary Program in Environment & Resources
Faculty Affiliate, Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions
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Seminars

Child Gender, Living Arrangements and Maternal Labor Supply: Evidence from Rural China

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This paper studies intergenerational living arrangements in the presence of pre-school children. Two particular driving forces behind living arrangements are considered: intergenerational labor specialization in childcare and work on the job; and sharing the companionship of children as a household public good. The theoretical model yields implications for intergenerational co-residence, maternal labor supply, and investment in children. Using China Health and Nutrition Survey data, we …find that women are more likely to co-reside with their mothers-in-law if they have higher earning abilities, or if they have fi…rstborn sons, who are considered more valuable household public goods under the widespread son preference in China. We also fi…nd that among extended households with higher probability to co-reside, the mothers are likely to spend more time on the job and be less involved in family chores, and the male children, on average, receive better health insurance and medical services than the female children do.

Philippines Conference Room

Encina Hall 3rd. Floor Central

616 Serra Street

Stanford, CA 94305

Ang Sun Assistant Professor, Renmin University of China
Seminars

Studies on Chinese Community Health Service Performance and Index

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In the last decade, Chinese community health service institutions have experienced rapid development, so that 97 percent of Chinese citizens are covered under one form or another of social health insurance. Currently a comprehensive network of community health services in the cities of China has established and has gradually achieved full management integration and classification. Evaluating the performance of community health services is an important measure for a comprehensive review of the current situation of community health services, their processes and outcomes, and for improving the efficient allocation of health resources and service efficiency. This evaluation is also of great importance to improve the overall quality of health services. The main purpose of the present study was to establish a scientific, standardized community health service performance evaluation system, and to further promote the efficient and effective development of community health services. Using a variety of methods including literature research, expert discussion, expert consultation, and fuzzy evaluation, the established indicator system contains three levels of indicators across over thirty aspects of performance in providing basic health services to community residents. The application of this index could be integrated in different areas to evaluate and compare different community health service institutions scientifically.

Professor Yaping Du is the Deputy Director of Institute of Social and Family Medicine, Zhejiang University.  In 2005, Du received his doctor degree in Family Medicine from the University of Kiel, Germany. From 1979 to 1984, he studied clinical medicine at Zhejiang University School of Medicine and in 1993, he received a Master in Health Management from Peking Union Medical University. In 1997, Professor Du created the Department of Family Medicine in Zhejiang University and was awarded the the title of Associate Professor and Tutor for the Master program. For more than 10 years, Du has taken the lead in China for general practitioner residency training programs and has enriched the department to become the top academic institution awarding master’s and doctoral degrees in family medicine.   During Professor Du’s more than 27 years at Zhejiang University School of Medicine, he has established a laboratory of digital and information technology in primary healthcare, and was the Program Instructor of more than ten programs from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, International Cooperation and Zhejiang Province. Du has published more than 30 articles and 10 textbooks and has guided more than 30 postgraduates. Currently Professor Du is the senior expert of the MoH (Minister of Health) in exploring human resources for community health service, councilor of Family Medicine Educational Guide Committee of the MoE (Minister of Education), and Vice-Chairman and General Secretary of Zhejiang Provincial Society of Family Medicine.

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Philippines Conference Room

Encina Hall 3rd Floor Central

616 Serra Street

Stanford, CA 95305

Yaping Du Institute of Social and Family Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
Seminars
Innovations in Primary Care

AHRQ Quality Indicators Enhancement

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Quality Indicators (QIs) are a set of four indicator modules that use hospital discharge data to reflect quality of care and access to care. Three of the modules focus on in-hospital care, specifically procedure volume, in-hospital mortality and procedure utilization (Inpatient Quality Indicators, IQIs), complications of care (Patient Safety Indicators, PSIs) and potentially preventable complications and iatrogenic events for pediatric patients treated in hospitals (Pediatric Quality Indicators, PDIs).

Accountable Care and the Next Steps in Health Care Reform

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Dr. Mark McClellan

Senior Fellow and Director of the Health Care Innovation and Value Initiative at the Brookings Institution

About the speaker: Mark McClellan, MD, PhD, is a senior fellow and director of the Health Care Innovation and Value Initiative at the Brookings Institution. Within Brookings, his work focuses on promoting quality and value in patient-centered health care. Dr. McClellan is a former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where he developed and implemented major reforms in health policy. He previously served as a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and senior director for health care policy at the White House, and was an associate professor of economics and medicine at Stanford University. 

 

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CISAC Central Conference Room

Encina Hall, Second Floor

616 Serra Street

Stanford, CA 94022

Class Debate

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The final class will pose nine questions, each question digging into
each of the nine topics covered over the quarter.  Pizza at 6pm!

Bechtel Conference Center, EncinaHall

Helen Stacy

The Digital Defenders of Children

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Abstract

Thorn (www.wearethorn.org) drives technology innovation to fight child sexual exploitation. The talk will provide an overview of how technology has drastically changed the dynamics of crimes against children and will present concepts for how technology can also be used in new, innovative ways to combat these crimes and protect children.
 

Bechtel Conference Room, Encina Hall

Julie Cordua Speaker CEO,Thorn
Helen Stacy Director Commentator Program on Human Rights
Seminars
Program on Human Rights Winter Speaker Series

Prevalence and Risk factors of Diabetes and Prediabetes Among Adults in Vietnam

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Aims: Concerns have been raised about the increasing trend in diabetes among lean populations including Southeast Asians. However, this issue is less studied in Vietnam. We determined the prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes, and quantitatively evaluated associated risk factors among Vietnamese adults.

Methods: Subjects were 5,602 men and 10,680 women aged 30-69 years who participated in community diabetes screening programs during 2011-2013 in northeastern Vietnam. Diabetes was defined as fasting plasma glucose (FPG) ≥7.0 mmol/L or 2-h postload PG ≥11.1 mmol/L. Prediabetes was defined as FPG ≥6.1 mmol/L and <7.0 mmol/L or FPG <7.0 mmol/l and 2-h postload PG ≥7.8 mmol/L and <11.1 mmol/L. Putative risk factors were elicited through an interview-administered questionnaire. The authors calculated standardized prevalence rates of prediabetes and diabetes in 2011-2013 and demographic projections for 2030, and used multiple logistic regression analysis  to estimate odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for the association of multiple risk factors with diabetes and prediabetes.     

Results: The overall age- and sex-standardized prevalence of diabetes was 6.0% and of prediabetes was 13.5%. Among urban residents, age- and sex-adjusted prevalence of diabetes was 6.7%, compared with 5.2% among rural/mountainous inhabitants. The age- and residence-adjusted prevalence of diabetes was 8.0% in men and 5.4% in women. Population aging is projected to raise the total prevalence of diabetes to 7.0% and of prediabetes to 15.3% by 2030. Advancing age, obesity, large waist-to-hip ratio and hypertension were each associated with higher prevalence of diabetes, whereas the opposite direction of association was observed for underweight and ethnic minority peoples in both genders. In addition, diabetes was positively associated with family history of diabetes in women, and inversely related to physically heavy work in men.

Conclusions: The present study found that in 2011-2013, around one in 17 adults had diabetes and one in 7 adults had prediabetes in northeastern Vietnam . Urbanization, population aging, elevated adiposity, uncontrolled hypertension and sedentary work may be important contributors to the increased prevalence of diabetes in this country.

Dr. Ngoc Minh Pham, the 2014-15 Stanford-APO Developing Asia Health Policy fellow with the Stanford Asia Health Policy Program, is a health professional with teaching and research experiences in epidemiology and public health in Vietnam and Japan. He obtained his MD degree from Thai Nguyen University of Medicine and Pharmacy - Vietnam in 1997, MPH from The University of Melbourne - Australia in 2004, and PhD from Kyushu University - Japan in 2011. His main interests are public health, disease prevention and the rural-urban divide in developing countries, including the epidemiology of lifestyle-related diseases including diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cancer, insulin resistance and mental illness. At Stanford, Pham is studying the epidemiology of diabetes and developing a conceptual framework for diabetes prevention and management in Vietnam, particularly in mountainous areas of that country.

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Philippines Conference Room

Encina Hall Central, 3rd Floor

616 Serra Street, Stanford University

Stanford, CA 94305

Ngoc Minh Pham 2014-15 Stanford-APO Developing Asia Health Policy fellow with the Stanford Asia Health Policy Program
Seminars

Research in Progress (RIP): "Changing Choice Architecture to Improve End-of-Life Care"

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All research in progress seminars are off-the-record. Any information about methodology and/or results are embargoed until publication.

Dr. Halpern’s research combines empirical approaches from the fields of epidemiology, health services research, and the decision-making sciences with conceptual work grounded in moral philosophy. He applies these approaches across three fields.

First, he examines the allocation of scarce healthcare resources including ICU beds and services and solid-organ transplants. He seeks to understand how tradeoffs are made when the interests of individuals conflict with the interests of groups, and how these tradeoffs could be made more efficiently, equitably, and transparently. Second, he examines the use of behavioral economic approaches, including framing effects, default options, and financial incentives, to improve patients’ and providers’ decisions, particularly those related to end-of-life care. Third, he seeks to improve the ethics and efficiency of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) by examining the intended and unintended consequences of incentives for research participation, and by developing new patient-centered outcome measures and methods for analyzing them.

Dr. Halpern’s research is supported by the National Cancer Institute, National Institute on Aging, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, American Thoracic Society, and by a Greenwall Foundation Faculty Scholar Award in Bioethics. He is the Founding Director of the Fostering Improvement in End-of-Life Decision Science (FIELDS) program, and Deputy Director of the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics (CHIBE), both housed within the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at Penn.

 

Scott Halpern Assistant Professor University of Pennsylvania
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