Event Date
Talk by Dr. Richard Kravitz, UC Center Sacramento and UC Davis Health
Policymakers need sound empirical evidence to support decisions in the public interest. However, the road from evidence to policy is strewn with four major obstacles. First, much of what passes for evidence is unreliable. Second, the public, and sometimes their elected representatives, are mistrustful of experts. Third, academic researchers operate under incentives that are poorly aligned with the needs of policymakers. Fourth, systematic efforts to enhance critical appraisal skills are sparse.
Over the past decade, UC Center Sacramento (UCCS) has worked to prepare students to become discerning consumers of evidence and to connect UC researchers with state policymakers. If California is to continue to lead the nation in innovation and opportunity for all, UC should rededicate itself to producing, framing, and communicating evidence in the public interest, thereby more fully embodying the University’s motto, Fiat Lux.
Dr. Richard Kravitz has served as director of UCCS since 2013. He is also a distinguished professor of medicine in the Division of General Medicine at UC Davis Health, specializing in internal medicine. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, Academy Health, and the American Academy on Communication in Healthcare. After joining UC Davis in 1993, he served as director of the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research from 1996 through 2006.
Dr. Kravitz has been recognized with the Elnora Rhodes Service Award from the Society of General Internal Medicine, the George Engel Award for Contributions to Theory, Practice, and Teaching of Health Communication, and has been honored twice as Academy Health’s Research Article-of-the-Year Award winner. He holds a M.S. in Public Health from UCLA and an M.D. from UC San Francisco.
Please click here for a print friendly flyer.