February 21, 2002
Patrick to speak on quality-of-life measures
“Quality of Life and Health of the Public” is the topic for the School of Public Health and Community Medicine’s winter quarter Distinguished Faculty Lecture, set for 3:15 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 26, in room T-639 of the Health Sciences Center. The lecture is open to everyone.
The speaker is Dr. Donald Patrick, professor of health services. Patrick, a member of the Institute of Medicine, is director of the UW public health training programs in Social and Behavioral Sciences and Behavioral Cancer Prevention and Control.
Patrick is recognized internationally for his research on health and quality of life measures, especially as applied to vulnerable populations, such as people with disabilities and people at the end of life.
For more than three decades he has worked to improve measures of health status and life quality to better reflect the perceptions of the people involved, and to apply these findings to public health policy and the allocation of health resources.
His methods for valuing health and disability have been used throughout the world. He has also developed cross-cultural measures for evaluating the life quality of people with differing, often stigmatizing, conditions. His current efforts focus on improving adolescent quality of life, especially for youths with disabilities, and improving end-of-life care in ways that are important to the person.
He sees his work as contributing to the ability of individuals and caretakers to choose effective care or treatments and to the ability of policy decision-makers to construct health-promoting environments.
Patrick joined the public health faculty in 1987 after working at the University of North Carolina. From 1977 to 1982 he led the social science section at the United Medical School of Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospitals in London. He holds a Ph.D. in sociomedical sciences from Columbia University in New York City.
He has been a leader in the American Public Health Association, chairing its Council on Disablement, has been president of the International Society for Quality of Life Research, and is a fellow of the Academy for Health Services Research and Health Policy, among other professional organization positions.
At the UW, he also has adjunct or affiliate appointments in sociology, rehabilitation medicine, pharmacy and epidemiology.
