Center for Healthcare Policy and Research

The Center for Healthcare Policy and Research (CHPR) accomplishes its mission to facilitate research, promote education, and inform policy about health and healthcare through interdisciplinary and collaborative research and training. Our faculty members represent a broad spectrum of disciplines from UC Davis and other public and private organizations.

Designated as an organized research unit by the University of California’s Board of Regents in 1994, CHPR supports investigators pursuing original research and translating findings to support evidence-based policy making.

Under the leadership of Joy Melnikow, M.D., M.P.H., CHPR supports innovative research and education in comparative effectiveness, health disparities, and cost and quality of care.  CHPR’s work informs health policy in local, state, federal, and international policy arenas as well as the UC Davis community.


The primary objectives of CHPR are to:

  1. Develop and support interdisciplinary and collaborative research projects related to our mission;
  2. Promote education and career development for scholars with interest in health services and health policy research; and
  3. Engage in the synthesis, interpretation, and dissemination of research findings that assist healthcare policy formulation and improve health services and outcomes.

Center for Healthcare
Policy and Research

2103 Stockton Blvd.
Sacramento, CA, 95817 | Get Directions


Phone: 916-734-2818

News

CHPR in the Community

Joy Melnikow, M.D., M.P.H., the Director of CHPR, spoke about breast cancer screening and prevention in Black Women to a recent meeting of the Sacramento Chapter of 100 Black Women. "Disparities in breast cancer outcomes are striking and very concerning," said Dr. Melnikow. "'They persist despite the fact that Black women have higher rates of mammography screening than White women. We need more research in collaboration with the community to define strategies to effectively reduce these and other cancer disparities."

from left to right:
Charlotte Scott-Day, M.S.
Elizabeth Sherrill-Davis, Ph.D.
Joy Melnikow, M.D., M.P.H.
Adrienne S. Lawson, EdD

UC Davis CHPR-Led Research Informs New National Cervical Cancer Screening Recommendation

A comprehensive analysis of eight clinical trials and four cohort studies on cervical cancer screening by researchers from UC Davis and Kaiser Permanente Northwest has found that while Pap smears are still highly effective for detecting pre-cancerous cells and cancer, testing for the virus that causes these cancers also is an excellent screening tool.

The research was led by Joy Melnikow, director of the UC Davis Center for Healthcare Policy and Research (CHPR), a family and community medicine physician and expert on evidence-based cancer screening.

The findings, published  August 21 in the Journal of the American Medical Association(JAMA), were used to inform the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which published its updated recommendation on cervical cancer screening in the same issue of the journal. The Task Force is an independent panel of experts that makes evidence-based recommendations on disease prevention. The Task Force also provides an annual report to Congress on the evidence base for clinical preventive services and recommends priority areas that deserve further examination.

"Our work demonstrated that there is now strong evidence for the effectiveness of high-risk HPV testing used alone as a cervical cancer screening test," said Melnikow.

Melnikow added that researchers found that regular screening with any method will lead to lower cervical cancer rates. "In the U.S., where most women are not part of an organized screening program, our biggest challenge is reaching women who have not been screened," she said.

More information about specific findings from this research are posted in the UC Davis Health Newsroom. 

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