Seminar Series

2003 - 2004

The Division of Health Policy and Management sponsors two seminar series:

• Health Services Research Seminars (HSR) - Nationally and internationally known leaders in health services research speak on current topics. These seminars are free and open to the public.
• Work in Progress (WIP) - Faculty research, guest speakers, and student topics of interest are presented in an informal setting, open to the University community. All WIP seminars are held in Mayo D-330 from 11:00 am -12:00 pm, except as noted. Feel free to bring your lunch.

2003-2004 Schedule

Archives

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Abstracts for HSR Series

William M. Sage, M.D.,  Ph.D.
Professor, Columbia University School of Law

“Understanding the First Malpractice Crisis of the 21st Century”

Abstract

William M. Sage, MD, JD is Professor of Law at Columbia University, where he teaches courses in health law, regulatory theory, and the professions. Prof. Sage’s areas of expertise include managed care, medical malpractice, antitrust, insurance coverage determinations, health care information, and the regulation of health care professionals. He currently serves as principal investigator for the Project on Medical Liability in Pennsylvania, a 2-year study funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts. Prof. Sage’s other major research project, supported by an Investigator Award in Health Policy
Research from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, involves antitrust and regulatory oversight of quality in health care. Prof. Sage writes frequently for leading legal, health policy, and clinical journals, including the Columbia Law Review, JAMA, Health Affairs, and the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, for which he recently co-edited a special issue titled “Kenneth Arrow and the Changing Economics of Health Care.” He is a member of the editorial board of Health Affairs.

Prof. Sage received his A.B. from Harvard College in 1982 and his medical and law degrees from Stanford University in 1988. He completed an internship at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in San Diego, and served as a resident in anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Prior to joining the Columbia faculty in 1995, Prof. Sage practiced corporate and securities law at O'Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles and, in 1993, headed four working groups of the White House Task Force on Health Care Reform.

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Tomas J. Philipson, Ph.D.
Professor, Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies, The University of Chicago.

“The Growth of Obesity and Technological Change: A Theoretical and Empirical Examination”

Abstract

This paper provides a theoretical and empirical examination of the long-run growth in weight over time. We argue that technological change has induced weight growth by making home- and market production more sedentary and by lowering food prices through agricultural innovation. We analyze how such technological change leads to unexpected relationships among income, food prices, and weight. Using individual-level data from 1976 to 1994, we then find that such technology-based reductions in food prices and job-related exercise have had significant impacts on weight across time and populations. In particular, we find that about forty percent of the recent growth in weight seems to be due to agricultural innovation that has lowered food prices, while sixty percent may be due to demand factors such as declining physical activity from technological changes in home and market.

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Bruce G. Link, Ph.D.
Professor, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

“Social Conditions as Fundamental Causes of Disease: Challenges and Evidence”

Abstract

In the last century human beings have greatly expanded their capacity to control disease and death. Any explanation of current health disparities by such factors as socioeconomic position or race must take account of this fact. Indeed we argue that disparities are created by the human capacity to control disease and death - that when we gain such capacity people with more knowledge, money, power, prestige, and beneficial social connections are better able to harness the benefits of the control we have developed. Health disparities are the result. We use mortality data to test this idea by rating the extent to which death from specific causes can be prevented. We then construct two hypotheses. First we use the National Longitudinal Mortality Study and hypothesize that the association between SES and mortality in a 9-year follow-up will be greater for diseases for which death can be prevented than for diseases for which death is less preventable. The idea is that when we know little about how to prevent death people’s SES-related resources are less effective in avoiding mortality. Second we examine time trends in age adjusted mortality in the US between 1950 and 2000 with the hypothesis that as we develop the capacity to prevent death, SES and race disparities in mortality emerge over time. Results are consistent with these hypotheses and support a fundamental social causes approach to explaining health disparities.

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