MAY 2023
Director's Note
IHPS is engaged in a wide range of federal policy research and service, alongside our well-known state policy work in California. This month, we highlight our work in informing GAO reports, testifying in federal court, advising the CDC, and other activities that shape federal regulation, court decisions, and policies. Our federal work is particularly demanding due to our distance from DC, but we are nonetheless dedicated to going the extra mile (or miles) to inform policymakers with evidence and expertise.
 
Joanne Spetz
IHPS Focus On: Federal Government and Non-California State Government Work

IHPS faculty participate in a wide range of work both with the federal government and the governments of states outside California. Sanket Dhruva, MD, MHS and Rita Redberg, MD, MS have partnered with the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) to develop and implement evidence-based polices intended to reduce low-value care with medical devices. Alison Cohen, PhD is currently a fellow with the U.S. federal government's Office of Evaluation Sciences. Joanne Spetz, PhD and Jack Turban, MD, MHS both serve as expert witnesses in state and federal cases. George Sawaya, MD works with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) under an Interprofessional Agreement doing studies using large datasets, including the National Survey of Family Growth, the Medicare dataset, SEER and the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program. Renee Mehra, PhD's work was used in the United States Government Office of Accountability (GAO) report on midwives.

Learn more about some of IHPS's work with the federal and non-California state governments. Read more
Upcoming Events
UCSF Health Services Research Symposium

May 23, 2023
Annual
UCSF Health Services Research Symposium
Robertson Auditorium, Mission Bay campus

Opening Remarks
Catherine Lucey, UCSF Executive Vice Chancellor & Provost

Keynote: "Digital Technology, Health Policy & Leadership in Creating a More Equitable Health Care Future"
Jesse Ehrenfeld, MD, MPH
President-elect, American Medical Association

2023 Harold S.Luft Mentoring Award presentation

Breakout sessions on funding, publishing, data sources, and current work being done at UCSF

Plenary: The Future of Health Equity-Focused Health Services Research
Moderator: Jack Resneck, Jr. MD
President, American Medical Association
Chair, UCSF Department of Dermatology

Poster session and reception
IHPS Health Policy Grand Rounds
Hospital Closures, Access to Care, & Care Utilization among Rural-Dwelling Adults


Arrianna Marie Planey, PhD, MA
Assistant Professor
Department of Health Policy & Management
Gillings School of Global Public Health
UNC Chapel Hill

June 21, 12 - 1 pm
Online only - Webinar link here
Harold S. Luft Award for Mentoring in
Health Services Research and Health Policy
Congratulations to Renee Hsia, MD, MSc, the recipient of the 2023 Harold S. Luft Award for Mentoring in Health Services Research and Health Policy!
The award will be presented at the UCSF Health Services Symposium on May 23.

Renee Y. Hsia, MD, MSc, is Professor of Emergency Medicine and Health Policy at the University of California San Francisco. She is also Associate Chair of Health Services Research in the Department of Emergency Medicine, and a core member of the Philip R. Lee Institute of Health Policy Studies. Dr. Hsia is a national leader in research focusing on access to emergency care, especially for vulnerable populations; emergency department and trauma center utilization; the effect of service availability on patient outcomes; regionalization of care; and the wide variation in the costs and charges in healthcare.

"It is remarkable that 50 of Dr. Hsia’s publications were first-authored by trainees she has mentored. One metric of an outstanding mentor is the number of independent researchers she has cultivated, but this misses other important metrics: the number of mentees who are inspired by the mentor to pursue a research career, and the degree to which her mentorship helps launch the careers of trainees and junior faculty – two measures by which Dr. Hsia excels." - Award nomination letter excerpt
IHPS Faculty Spotlight
Erin McCauley's research focuses on the causes and consequences of criminal legal involvement for individuals and families. More specifically, her research agenda falls into three core areas. First, she studies the intergenerational consequences of incarceration for children's health and education. Second, she studies how criminal legal involvement acts as an important socio-structural determinant of health. Third, she studies the intersection of race and disability in institutional settings, with an eye toward understanding the reciprocal relationship between social marginalization and institutionalization.Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Fahs-Beck Fund for Research and Experimentation, and Policy Research Associates, among others, and has been featured in the American Journal of Public Health, Socius, Social Science and Medicine, and the Journal of Disability Policy Studies.
Research Highlights
Disruption of National Cancer Database Data Models in the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic


Each year, the National Cancer Database (NCDB) collects and analyzes data used in reports to support research, quality measures, and Commission on Cancer program accreditation. Because data models used to generate these reports have been historically stable, year-to-year variances have been attributed to changes within the cancer program rather than data modeling. Cancer submissions in 2020 were anticipated to be significantly different from prior years because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Elizabeth Wick, MD and colleagues share findings from their study in JAMA Surgery that involved a validation analysis of the variances in observed to expected 2020 NCDB cancer data in comparison with 2019 and 2018. Historically stable NCDB data models used for research, administrative, and quality improvement purposes were disrupted during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. NCDB data users will need to carefully interpret disease- and program-specific findings for years to come to account for pandemic year aberrations when running models that include 2020. Read more
The association between prescription drug monitoring programs and controlled substance prescribing: a cross-sectional study using data from 2019 National Electronic Health Records Survey
The use of controlled medications such as opioids, stimulants, anabolic steroids, depressants, and hallucinogens has led to an increase in addiction, overdose, and death. Given the high attributes of abuse and dependency, prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) were introduced in the United States as a state-level intervention. In a recent Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association article, Matt Pantell, MD, MS and colleagues shared the findings from their study using cross-sectional data from the 2019 National Electronic Health Records Survey, in which they assessed the association between PDMP usage and reduced or eliminated controlled substance prescribing as well as the association between PDMP usage and changing a controlled substance prescription to a nonopioid pharmacologic therapy or nonpharmacologic therapy. The researchers applied survey weights to produce physician-level estimates from the survey sample. These results support the continued use, investment, and expansion of PDMPs as an effective intervention for reducing controlled substance prescription and changing to nonopioid/pharmacologic therapy. Read more
Dental patients' perceptions of and desired content from patient health portals

Patient health portals (PHPs) encourage patient engagement to achieve the quadruple aim of health care: to improve the patient’s experience of care, improve population health, reduce health care costs, and improve the work life of health care providers. In a recent article in The Journal of the American Dental Association, Enihomo Obadan-Udoh, DDS, MPH, DrMedSc and colleague Semira Amirkiai, BS detailed their study which was designed to capture dental patients’ perspectives on PHPs and their desired content. Specifically, they examined the important features for dental patients to have as well as the barriers and facilitators of PHPs. The study highlights dental patients’ preferences for a PHP and can inform the development of dental PHPs. Dentists must overcome identified barriers to increase patient engagement in using dental PHPs. Implementing the patient-identified features in a dental PHP will help improve the quality of oral health care delivery by increasing patient engagement and improving the patient’s experience. Read more
Evaluation of the sugar-sweetened beverage tax in Oakland, United States, 2015-2019: A quasi-experimental and cost-effectiveness study

While a 2021 federal commission recommended that the United States government levy a sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax to improve diabetes prevention and control efforts, evidence is limited regarding the longer-term impacts of SSB taxes on SSB purchases, health outcomes, costs, and cost-effectiveness. This study estimates the impact and cost-effectiveness of an SSB tax levied in Oakland, California. In a recent PLoS medicine article, Justin White, PhD, Dean Schillinger, MD and colleagues shared findings from their study showing an SSB tax levied in Oakland was associated with a substantial decline in volume of SSBs purchased, an association that was sustained more than 2 years after tax implementation. Their study suggests that SSB taxes are effective policy instruments for improving health and generating significant cost savings for society. Read more
Media Mentions