Stanford Health Policy is a joint effort of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Stanford School of Medicine
FSI researchers work to understand continuity and change in societies as they confront their problems and opportunities. This includes the implications of migration and human trafficking. What happens to a society when young girls exit the sex trade? How do groups moving between locations impact societies, economies, self-identity and citizenship? What are the ethnic challenges faced by an increasingly diverse European Union? From a policy perspective, scholars also work to investigate the consequences of security-related measures for society and its values.
The Europe Center reflects much of FSI’s agenda of investigating societies, serving as a forum for experts to research the cultures, religions and people of Europe. The Center sponsors several seminars and lectures, as well as visiting scholars.
Societal research also addresses issues of demography and aging, such as the social and economic challenges of providing health care for an aging population. How do older adults make decisions, and what societal tools need to be in place to ensure the resulting decisions are well-informed? FSI regularly brings in international scholars to look at these issues. They discuss how adults care for their older parents in rural China as well as the economic aspects of aging populations in China and India.
Center for Immersive and Simulation-based Learning
Li Ka Shing Center for Learning and Knowledge
291 Campus Drive, LK001
Stanford, CA 94305-5134
David M. Gaba, M.D. is Associate Dean for Immersive and Simulation-based Learning and Director of the Center for Immersive and Simulation based Learning (CISL) at Stanford University School of Medicine. He is Professor (with tenure) of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at Stanford and Founder and Co-Director of the Simulation Center at Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System where he is also a Staff Physician.
Over the last 30+ years Dr. Gaba's laboratory has worked extensively on human performance and patient safety issues. His laboratory is a pioneer in applying organizational safety theory to health care. The laboratory is also the inventor of the modern full-body patient simulator and is responsible for adapting Crew Resource Management training from aviation to healthcare, first for anesthesia and then for many other healthcare domains. He is a key pioneer in the development of cognitive aids and Emergency Manuals in healthcare. He has been the principal investigator on grants from a wide variety of federal and foundation funders. Dr. Gaba is an author on over 130 original articles, commentaries, and editorials in a wide diversity of peer-reviewed journals. He is the author more than 25 book chapters, and lead author of a well-known book Crisis Management in Anesthesiology (now in its 2nd edition). After serving on the editorial boards of several academic and medical journals, Dr. Gaba is the founding and current Editor-in-Chief of the indexed peer-reviewed journal Simulation in Healthcare (now in Volume 11), the only indexed peer-reviewed journal on simulation, published by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH).
Dr. Gaba is long-time member of the Executive Committee of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation and a founding member of the Research Committee of the National Patient Safety. He is a founding and current Board member of both the SSH and Advanced Initiatives in Medical Simulation (AIMS). Dr. Gaba was awarded the 2003 David M. Worthen Award from the Department of Veterans Affairs; the 2007 Teaching Achievement Recognition Award from the International Anesthesia Research Society; Kaiser Award for Innovative and Outstanding Contributions to Medical Education, Stanford University School of Medicine, May, 2010; The Society for Technology in Anesthesia, J.S. Gravenstein Award for Lifetime Achievement, January, 2011, and the 2011 (inaugural) Veterans Affairs Under Secretary for Health Award for Excellence in Clinical Simulation Training, Education and Research. In 2015 Dr. Gaba received the Eliasberg Award from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City.
In his spare time he rides a short wheelbase recumbent road bicycle, reads (and listens to audiobooks) voraciously, avidly follows at a serious level developments in physics and space sciences, and occasionally plays golf and bridge. He used to do many other interesting things including epee fencing, flying, scuba diving, rock climbing, soccer (goaltender), skiing, glass blowing -- but is currently (sadly) retired from all of those activities.
A holistic approach to the financial problems of the elderly focuses simultaneously on their expenditures that are self financed as well as those that are financed by transfers from the young (under age65). It also focuses simultaneously on paying for health care and paying for other goods and services. The income and health care expenditures not paid from personal income, provides a useful framework for empirical application of the holistic approach. In 1997, approximately 35 percent of the elderly's full income was devoted to health care; 65 percent to other goods and services. Approximately 56 percent of full income was provided by transfers from the young and 44 percent by the elderly themselves. The paper shows how these percentages might change under alternative assumptions about the growth of health care relative to other goods and services and the effect of these changes on the need for more saving and more work prior to retirement.
Approximately 13 speakers will be presenting throughout the day. For a detailed schedule please contact Robin Holbrook, 650-723-6270
Fairchild Auditorium
The association of nutrient intake with the risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) was investigated in a population-based case-control study conducted in three counties of western Washington State from 1990 to 1994. Incident ALS cases (n = 161) were identified and individually matched on age and gender to population controls (n = 321). A self-administered food frequency questionnaire was used to assess nutrient intake. Conditional logistic regression analysis was used to compute odds ratios adjusted for education, smoking, and total energy intake. The authors found that dietary fat intake was associated with an increased risk of ALS (highest vs. lowest quartile, fiber-adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 2.7, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.9, 8.0; p for trend = 0.06), while dietary fiber intake was associated with a decreased risk of ALS (highest vs. lowest quartile, fat-adjusted OR = 0.3, 95% CI: 0.1, 0.7; p for trend = 0.02). Glutamate intake was associated with an increased risk of ALS (adjusted OR for highest vs. lowest quartile = 3.2, 95% CI: 1.2, 8.0; p for trend < 0.02). Consumption of antioxidant vitamins from diet or supplement sources did not alter the risk. The positive association with glutamate intake is consistent with the etiologic theory that implicates glutamate excitotoxicity in the pathogenesis of ALS, whereas the associations with fat and fiber intake warrant further study and biologic explanation.
The associations of cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption with the risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) were investigated in a population-based case-control study conducted in three counties of western Washington State from 1990 to 1994. Incident ALS cases (n = 161) were identified and were matched to population controls (n = 321) identified through random digit dialing and Medicare enrollment files. Conditional logistic regression analysis was used to compute odds ratios adjusted for age, gender, respondent type, and education. The authors found that alcohol consumption was not associated with the risk of ALS. Ever having smoked cigarettes was associated with a twofold increase in risk (alcohol-adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 2.0, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.3, 3.2). A greater than threefold increased risk was observed for current smokers (alcohol-adjusted OR = 3.5, 95% CI: 1.9, 6.4), with only a modestly increased risk for former smokers (alcohol-adjusted OR = 1.5, 95% CI: 0.9, 2.4). Significant trends in the risk of ALS were observed with duration of smoking (p for trend = 0.001) and number of cigarette pack-years (p for trend = 0.001). The finding that cigarette smoking is a risk factor for ALS is consistent with current etiologic theories that implicate environmental chemicals and oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of ALS.