News | Center for Healthcare Policy and Research

The UC Davis Center for Healthcare Policy and Research hosted a national conference last October to discuss the crisis in primary care in the U.S. Now, an expert panel has released its recommendations.

The UC Davis Center for Healthcare Policy and Research moved into its new home at Aggie Square. The innovation district brings together UC Davis' cutting-edge research with private-sector companies and start-ups. 

The Center for Healthcare Policy and Research brought together a team of experts from the population health, information technology, and equity teams at UC Davis. They created a population health AI predictive model. Its algorithm is programmed to identify patients who may benefit from care management services to deal with health problems before they lead to emergency department visits or hospitalization.

WellSpace Health, a community clinic in the Sacramento area, launched a quality improvement project to advance “system-based” tobacco cessation in partnership with the UC Davis Center for Healthcare Policy and Research.

Over the next five years, the UC Davis Center for Healthcare Policy and Research will develop and validate new electronic clinical quality measures using electronic health records data from UC Davis Health and the UC Health Data Warehouse.

Researchers at the UC Davis Center for Healthcare Policy and Research studied California’s 1.5 million smokers who are covered by California’s Medicaid program, called Medi-Cal, to understand tobacco treatment disparities.

The UC Davis Center for Healthcare Policy and Research in partnership with the Division of Health Policy and Management in the Department of Public Health Sciences will launch a new Applied Methods Journal Club in 2025. Participants will discuss the latest innovative methods in applied health services research. 

Spinal imaging for back pain may not be needed, but patients might still ask for it. A program designed to help clinicians engage patients with back pain did not help reduce imaging rates, found a study from the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research.

The Center for Healthcare Policy and Research hosted a who’s who of state and national thought leaders and physicians eager to improve the declining state of primary care.

Researchers at the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research received an award to help address the opioid overdose crisis by assessing a unique emergency department service. The $1.05 million, 3-year grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will support an evaluation of CA Bridge, an initiative to expand medication for addiction treatment in emergency departments.   

Researchers have received a grant from the Rosenfeld Foundation to support a “whole health” approach to improve the health and well-being of heart failure patients. The grant builds on a recent Center for Healthcare Policy and Research pilot project.

A Center for Healthcare Policy and Research study focused on patients prescribed buprenorphine in emergency departments explores the effectiveness of telehealth visits in boosting long-term use of the medication for treating opioid addiction.

Led by family medicine physician Na’amah Razon, researchers are conducting a study to better understand the impact transportation and different modes of transportation have on dialysis patient outcomes.

September marks Women in Medicine Month, an annual event celebrating the significant contributions of women in the healthcare field. In honor of this occasion, we spotlight three exceptional women working with the UC Davis Center for Healthcare Policy and Research.

A study by the UC Davis Center for Healthcare Policy and Research explored workplace support programs during the COVID-19 pandemic and their relationship to frontline physician burnout.

UC Davis received a $1.25 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to focus on health equity. Courtney Lyles, director of the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research, is a co-principal investigator on the grant with Center affiliate and nursing professor Leigh Ann Simmons.

Yi Zhang, a senior statistician at the UC Davis Center for Healthcare Policy and Research, is working to collect and analyze data from multiple California counties as part of the EPI-CAL project. The project's goal is to transform mental health care in California.

Two studies are being conducted by researchers at the UC Davis Center for Healthcare Policy and Research to advance equity and improve access to hypertension treatment. Both studies are in partnership with UC San Francisco.

New guidance recommends all women get screened for breast cancer every other year starting at age 40. The recommendation issued by the United States Preventive Services Task Force comes alongside a new systematic evidence review and modeling study published in JAMA that helped inform the updated recommendations. 

The Center for Healthcare Policy and Research has won a $4 million award to run and edit the Patient Safety Network, an online resource to help improve patient safety and prevent medical errors.

Led by David Johnson, a gerontologist at UC Davis Health, the Good Life program supports the healthy development and personal growth communities of color in and around Oakland, CA. Johnson takes a community-engaged approach to his research. This means members of the community are equal partners and collaborators in the research process.

Since 2018, the CA Quits statewide project has focused on the implementation of tobacco treatment best practices with health systems and health plans serving California’s low-income population. The project is housed at the UC Davis Center for Healthcare Policy and Research.

The UC Davis Center for Healthcare Policy and Research hosted four undergraduate students interested in health equity. The students interned at the Center from January through March 2024 as part of the Quarter at Aggie Square’s Advancing Health Care Equity experience.

Researchers evaluated California’s mental health crisis management and prevention programs in a report that called for more sustainable programs and community collaborations to support people with mental illness. The report's contributors include staff and faculty affiliates from the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research. 

A new report by the UC-led California State Policy Evidence Consortium investigates the impact of near-roadway air pollution on indoor air quality. Dominique Ritley and Katrine Padilla, researchers at the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research, contributed to the report. 

Upon request from the state legislative health committees, the California Health Benefits Review Program provides analyses of the medical, financial, and public health impacts of legislation affecting health insurance benefits and mandates. The Center for Healthcare Policy and Research coordinates the program's UC Davis team.

A new economic analysis of a telewellness, weight loss study found that a community-based “whole health” program is a cost-effective approach to improving wellness among vulnerable populations. The analysis was published in AJPM Focus by a team from the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research.

Patrick Romano is a healthcare quality expert who leads the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research's quality and safety research, including the AHRQ Quality Indicators program. The award supporting this work was recently renewed for three years with $1.4 million of funding. In this Q&A, Romano discusses the importance of healthcare quality and safety research and his latest work.