IHA Centers and Programs

Dorothy Pechman Rice Center for Health Economics. 

The Dorothy Pechman Rice Center for Health Economics was established in May 2000 to conduct applied research in public health, provide training and mentoring to health economics professionals, and disseminate health economics information to professional and lay audiences. Professor Wendy Max is the Center’s director.

The Center honors the values that Professor Rice has championed throughout her career: generosity in sharing time and knowledge, thoughtful analysis of health economics issues, and commitment to public service. Areas of research interest include: cost of illness, chronic illness, tobacco, aging, injury, and methodology. Some recent studies are:

• The Cost of Smoking in California, 2009
• Developing Models of Health and Healthcare Expenditures Attributable to the Use of Tobacco Products
• Secondhand Smoke Exposure Among People Living in Multiunit Housing
• Addicted to Tobacco: the Case of Malawi
• The Impact of Tobacco Taxation on African Americans
• Economic Evaluation of Incentives to Quit Smoking for MediCal Recipients
• The Economic Impact of Smoking on the LGB Community

The Community Living Policy Center

The Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Community Living Policy is aimed at identifying methods of improving the long-term services and support (LTSS) system in the states, improving data collection on community living policy, and developing a strategic plan for community living research. Center projects include:

• Development of a strategic plan for community living research
• Identification of promising practices in state LTSS systems
• Conducting an inventory of state LTSS policies, practices, programs, and future plans,
• Conducting evaluations and cases studies
• Basic research on selected topics in community living, involving analysis of national survey datasets to obtain information on (a) trends in family caregiving, (b) supply of and demand for accessible, affordable housing, and (c) state variation in community participation among people with disabilities
• Development of methods for improved monitoring progress in state LTSS systems

UCSF Bioethics

Determining the nature of the good and implementing a moral vision in clinical and scientific practice is health care’s greatest challenge. The University of California, San Francisco’s Program in Bioethics, as part of the top-funded public institution in the United States, at a campus focused entirely on the health sciences, is ideally suited to pursue these issues. Our location in the Bay Area, as an epicenter of biotech industry and academic research, provides an ideal vantage point from which to forge novel alliances between stakeholders in the health sciences.

The interdisciplinary program connects faculty, staff, students and trainees from across UCSF, creating a space for moral reflection that spans the university’s professional schools and health system. Program faculty conduct original research and policy analysis on a wide range of topics. They consult on moral and ethical concerns while embedded within bioscience or clinical projects. They devise strategies to effectively incorporate patient and citizen input into ongoing governance of science, clinical practice, and public health practice. And they provide a Research Ethics Consultation Service and direct educational programs for UCSF’s four professional schools. In all settings, UCSF Bioethics seeks to answer this question: How can we ensure the ethical use of our ever-expanding technological capabilities?