Andrew B. Bindman Professorship in Health Policy and Primary Care | UCSF Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies

The Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies (IHPS) and the UCSF Division of General Internal Medicine (DGIM) are pleased to announce

Dean Schillinger, MD has been named to the Andrew B. Bindman Professorship in Health Policy and Primary Care

The professorship honors an individual who has a commitment to providing high quality care to the urban underserved, conducts ground-breaking health policy research, and has a love for teaching and mentoring residents and fellows.

"Andy Bindman's tangible impacts on primary care and health policy both locally and nationally have been immeasurable. His mentorship in these arenas also fostered a generation of action-oriented leaders in primary care and health policy research whose works focuses on improving the health of marginalized populations. It is a tremendous honor to serve as the inaugural holder of the professorship that he helped establish and that bears his name."

Dean Schillinger, MD

Dean Schillinger, MD is a general internist, primary care physician at the Richard H. Fine People's Clinic, and a UCSF Professor of Medicine whose professional career has been spent at San Francisco General Hospital. He is an international research expert in health communication science, chronic disease-related public health, and health policy. In 2006, he co-founded the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations, and currently directs the UCSF Health Communications Research Program. He served as Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital from 2009-2020, and previously served as Chief of the Diabetes Prevention and Control Program for California. He has been awarded numerous federal research grants to develop and evaluate health programs tailored to the literacy and language needs of patients with noncommunicable diseases. He has published over 325 peer-reviewed scientific articles and contributed to methodologic discoveries involving community-engaged research, quasi-experimental studies, natural experiments and evaluations of mass media events and social media campaigns. He co-directs an NIDDK-funded Center for Translational Research called DREAMS (Diabetes Research for Equity through Advanced Multilevel Science). Dr. Schillinger received the American Public Health Association's Everett M. Rogers Award for lifetime achievement in health communication science. An accomplished and sought-after mentor, he received the IHPS /Hal Luft Health Services and Policy Research Career Mentoring Award in 2016.

Throughout his career, Dr. Schillinger has been active in health policy at municipal, state and federal levels. Most recently, he served as a co-chair for a Congressionally charged federal diabetes commission that made transformative recommendations for an all-of-government approach to the epidemic. Over the last decade, Dr. Schillinger has used his agency and privilege to better position his public hospital patients, and the affected communities they represent, to be able to tell their own stories to the public to shift popular consciousness and motivate communal action. He co-created a youth-led diabetes prevention social media campaign that has been viewed by millions, called The Bigger Picture, www.thebiggerpicture.org

"I am thrilled that this endowed professorship will sustain UCSF’s commitment to scholarship to support socially responsible health policies informed by patients seen in the primary care setting at San Francisco General Hospital.”

Andrew Bindman, MD

Andrew Bindman, MD, is executive vice president and chief medical officer for Kaiser Permanente. He is responsible for driving superior quality and equitable health outcomes through the integration of quality innovation, care delivery, data analytics, and research in collaboration with the Permanente Medical Groups. He is also Kaiser Permanente’s executive sponsor for the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine.

Prior to joining Kaiser Permanente, Dr. Bindman spent more than 30 years on the faculty at the University of California, San Francisco, where he practiced and taught clinical medicine at San Francisco General Hospital while conducting research on health care access and outcomes that resulted in more than 200 published scientific articles. Within the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies he established the California Medicaid Research Institute to conduct studies for the purpose of informing policies for the nation’s most significant health program for the poor. He also served as the Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in 2016-2017.

Dr. Bindman is a graduate of Harvard College and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. A board-certified general internist, he completed his residency in internal medicine at UCSF and was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at Stanford University. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the Association of American Physicians.

"Healthcare traditionally focuses on developing evidence-based diagnostic tests, treatments, and preventive strategies to improve outcomes. The problem is that patients often don’t, or can’t, follow this guidance, resulting in tremendous amounts of premature disability and mortality. Dr. Dean Schillinger has emerged as a world leader in improving the science of communication, helping clinicians, healthcare organizations, and policymakers bridge the gap between evidence and results. The Bindman professorship named after a national leader in health policy – particularly as it pertains to underserved patients – will help support Dean’s groundbreaking work in health communications for many years to come."

"Andy’s research on access to primary care services has been tour de force that has influenced health policy in the U.S.. His trailblazing research on the consequences of delaying primary care that can prevent emergency department visits and hospitalization influenced the design of health systems to provide more effective, safe, efficient and equitable care. The naming of the Andrew B. BIndman Professorship in Health Policy and Primary Care immortalizes the huge impact Andy has made through his scholarship, mentorship and leadership to the UCSF Division of General Internal Medicine at ZSFG and the Phillip Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies.”

"Andy’s research has been very influential, bringing health services and policy research methods to topics of high importance to both clinical practice and health policy. I remember seeing him present his research 25 years ago and was inspired by his creativity and passion. He was a dedicated and supportive member of the IHPS community, and his vision for this Professorship will ensure a continued bridge between IHPS and DGIM, where we share a focus on ensuring access to high-quality health care for all people. Dean is the perfect person to be the first holder of this Professorship, and the search committee enthusiastically recommended him after a wide-ranging national search."

"The Bindman professorship formally recognizes the importance of primary care clinicians in shaping evidence-based health policy and advancing population health. I am delighted that Dr. Dean Schillinger, a national leader in health communication, will carry on Dr. Bindman’s impressive legacy at UCSF, inspiring the next generation of general internists to find urgently-needed health policy solutions that reflect our shared commitment to health equity and social justice."