Research Summary
My training is in sociology (emphasis on culture, inequality, and research methods) and health policy. My research uses mixed-methods social scientific approaches to examine how the culture of medicine shapes delivery of patient care and conduct of medical research. I lead three major research projects. I am co-Program Director for EngageUC – a three-year CTSA initiative to develop harmonized processes for biospecimen repository data collection and analysis across all five University of California medical centers. EngageUC includes a statewide community engagement activity as well as a randomized trial of different consenting methods. I am PI for the Cancer Patient Deliberation study, an NCI-funded R01 examining how patients with advanced cancer make decisions about treatment and participation in clinical trials. Finally, I am PI of a recently-funded contract with the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to explore how to integrate qualitative methods into PCOR using visual displays of qualitative data. At UCSF, I hold a number of leadership positions related to training and program development including Deputy Director of the Institute for Health Policy Studies, co-lead of the health policy theme in the undergraduate medical education curriculum, Chair of the campus-wide Precision Medicine Regulatory/Policy workgroup, lead faculty of the proposed MS in Health Policy and Law, and co-Director of the UCSF/UC Hastings Consortium on Law, Science, and Health Policy.
Research Funding
September 13, 2017 - May 31, 2021 - Achieving ethical integration in the development of novel neurotechnologies, Co-Principal Investigator. Sponsor: NIH/NIMH, Sponsor Award ID: R01MH114860
September 1, 2017 - May 31, 2019 - Developing Tools to Support the Appropriate Use of Surgery in Frail Older Adults, Co-Principal Investigator. Sponsor: NIH/NIA, Sponsor Award ID: R21AG054208
June 1, 2010 - April 30, 2015 - Before Consent: Cancer Patients'Deliberations about Early Phase Clinical Trials, Principal Investigator. Sponsor: NIH/NCI, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA152195
September 15, 2003 - August 31, 2007 - Poverty, Substance Use, and Stigma in Four Organizations, Principal Investigator. Sponsor: NIH/NIAAA, Sponsor Award ID: R21AA014855
Education
Harvard College, Cambridge, MA, AB, 1987, Sociology
University of California Berkeley, MA, 1991, Sociology
University of California Berkeley, PhD, 1997, Sociology
University of California Berkeley, post-doc, 1999, Health Policy
University of California Berkeley, post-doc, 2001, Health Policy