Stanford Health Policy is a joint effort of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Stanford School of Medicine
Our decision-scientists, physicians and researchers examine evidence-based outcomes using data and cost-effectiveness analyses to promote better health policy outcomes. Working closely with the Society for Medical Decision Making, SHP researchers propose standards to help guide physicians and their patients, as well as state and federal policymakers who set those standards in legislation. Many of our faculty are also investigators and clinicians at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System and have published hundreds of studies in medical journals about the best clinical practices.
Douglas K. Owens, MD, PhD, and Kathryn M. McDonald, MM, PhD, the director and executive director of Stanford Health Policy's Center for Health Policy and Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research, respectively, are both experts in the field of medical decision-making.
Owens is the vice chair of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent panel of national experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine who issue guidelines that impact every primary care physician and patient in the United States. He has been instrumental in developing some of the annual Task Force reports to Congress that identify critical evidence gaps in research related to clinical prevention services. A general internist and professor of medicine at Stanford, Owens is nationally recognized for his research into the cost-effectiveness of early HIV prevention in the developing world.
McDonald has devoted much of her career to helping public health policymakers understand the importance of health-care quality and patient safety. A member of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality — a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Sevices, and the lead federal agency charged with improving the safety and quality of America's health-care system.
Joshua Salomon, PhD, focuses on measurements and valuation of health outcomes, trends in major causes of global mortality and disease and the evaluation of health interventions and policies. Salomon, a professor of medicine, developed a new calculation to better measure progress toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals.