Stanford University

Health and Medicine

FSI’s researchers assess health and medicine through the lenses of economics, nutrition and politics. They’re studying and influencing public health policies of local and national governments and the roles that corporations and nongovernmental organizations play in providing health care around the world. Scholars look at how governance affects citizens’ health, how children’s health care access affects the aging process and how to improve children’s health in Guatemala and rural China. They want to know what it will take for people to cook more safely and breathe more easily in developing countries.

FSI professors investigate how lifestyles affect health. What good does gardening do for older Americans? What are the benefits of eating organic food or growing genetically modified rice in China? They study cost-effectiveness by examining programs like those aimed at preventing the spread of tuberculosis in Russian prisons. Policies that impact obesity and undernutrition are examined; as are the public health implications of limiting salt in processed foods and the role of smoking among men who work in Chinese factories. FSI health research looks at sweeping domestic policies like the Affordable Care Act and the role of foreign aid in affecting the price of HIV drugs in Africa.

Trends in Disability in a Super-Aging Society: Adapting the Future Elderly Model to Japan

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Japan has experienced pronounced population aging, and now has the highest proportion of elderly adults in the world. Yet few projections of Japan’s future demography go beyond estimating population by age and sex to forecast the complex evolution of the health and functioning of the future elderly. This study adapts to the Japanese population the Future Elderly Model (FEM), a demographic and economic Markov microsimulation model that projects the health conditions and functional status of Japan’s elderly population in order to estimate disability, health, and need for long term care. We develop the model based on the recently released multiple waves of the Japan Study of Aging and Retirement (JSTAR) survey, the Japanese version of the Health and Retirement Study-like family of internationally comparable surveys. Using detailed data on a panel of Japanese aged 50-75 starting in 2007, we tailor the health transition matrix of the FEM model to the Japanese context, estimate conditional mortality probabilities consistent with Japanese national vital statistics, and use a state-transition Markov model to project trends in the disability and functioning of Japan’s future elderly population.

Brian K. Chen is Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Services Policy and Management at the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina. A health economist, Brian completed his Ph.D. in business administration in the Business and Public Policy Group at the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley. Before beginning his current faculty position at the University of South Carolina, Dr. Chen was the 2009-2010 postdoctoral fellow in Asian Health Policy at Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, and earned a Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School in 1997.

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Encina Hall Central, 3rd Floor.

Stanford, CA 94305

 

Brian K. Chen, J.D., PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Health Services Policy and Management, Arnold School of Public Health University of South Carolina
Hawre Jalal, PhD Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Primary Care and Outcome Research Stanford University School of Medicine
Michael Hurley Stanford School of Medicine
Lena Shoemaker Research Associate, Center for Health Policy/Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research Stanford University
Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD Associate Professor Stanford School of Medicine
Seminars

Healthcare Entrepreneurs in East Asia – Innovations in Primary Care and Beyond

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AHPP and CEAS joint event

Three distinguished healthcare entrepreneurs will share their experiences in adding value within health systems of East Asia. Mr. Zhang, founder of iKang Healthcare Group, Inc., will share his experience with merging traditional healthcare with a versatile online platform to build a preventative healthcare service network in China. Dr. Yang will share his experience in Taiwan and China to analyze opportunities in China, and use a case study of MissionCare to exemplify Value-driven Business Transformation. Dr. Wei will share his vision for Borderless Healthcare Group.

Mr. Lee Ligang Zhang has been a successful entrepreneur and business executive since 1998, bringing his knowledge and acumen to a number of companies in his professional career that range from healthcare to the Internet. Mr. Zhang founded iKang Healthcare Group, Inc. (“iKang”) in December 2003, successfully merging traditional healthcare with a versatile online platform to build a preventative healthcare service network that spanned the entire country. This “anytime, anywhere” network was to become the blueprint for the industry that transformed how customers accessed healthcare services in China. Since its inception, Mr. Zhang has been serving as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and has overseen many important milestones in its lifetime. iKang was listed on the NASDAQ on April 9, 2014 and is currently the largest provider in China's fast growing private preventive healthcare services market, accounting for approximately 12.3% of market share in terms of revenue in 2013.

Prior to iKang, Mr. Zhang was a co-founder of eLong.com, a NASDAQ-listed online travel service company, and served as CEO of its China operation from 1999 to 2003. From 1998 to 1999, Mr. Zhang served as head of product development at Sohu.com, a leading NASDAQ-listed Chinese Internet company. Mr. Zhang founded the Harvard China Review in 1997 and co-founded the Harvard China Forum in 1998 while studying at Harvard University.

Mr. Zhang studied biology as an undergraduate student at Fudan University in China, and went on to receive a bachelor's degree in biology and chemistry from Concordia College in the US before obtaining a master's degree in genetics from Harvard University. Mr. Zhang has been a member of the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Science Alumni Association Council since 2005, and also serves as Vice President of the Harvard Club of Beijing and the Shanghai Alumni Association at Fudan University.

Dr. Fred Hung-Jen Yang is a physician executive and is currently Chairman of MissionCare Inc,, and President of Healthcare Corporation of Asia, a company that owns and operates four community hospitals and seven long-term care facilities in northern Taiwan.

After graduating from National Taiwan University Medical School with an MD degree in 1994, Fred chose to pursue a career in healthcare management.  He earned a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from Harvard in 1995 and an MBA from the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University, CA in 1997. Before going back to Taiwan in 1998, he worked as a financial analyst for Tenet Healthcare System, the second largest hospital chain in the US. He is currently a candidate in the doctorate program of Johns Hopkins Doctor of Public Health Part-time Program.

Since 1998, Dr. Yang has been actively serving  the MissionCare Group in many important capacities, such as Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operation Officer and, Chief Executive Officer.

Over the past ten years, Dr. Yang has made significant contributions not only to his company but also to the healthcare industry in Taiwan. Under his leadership, MissionCare became Taiwan’s first JCI accredited hospital, hence helping to elevate Taiwan’s healthcare quality to a higher level.

In addition to hospital management, Dr. Yang also excels at health economics, financial engineering and strategic management. In 2010, he received an Ernst & Young Taiwan Entrepreneur Award for conducting the successful listing of his company on the Taipei OTC, making it the only hospital group listed in Taiwan.

Dr. Wei Siang Yu is a globally renowned pioneer in healthcare TMT (Technology, Media and Telecommunication). He is the founder of Borderless Healthcare Group of companies which operates borderless healthcare initiatives around the world. Dr. Wei graduated as one of the top students at Monash Medical School in 1995 and went against the conventional career path of an honours student to become a medical inventor in the space of digital bio-communication. He gained worldwide recognition in his work on social application of digital bio-communication and became the youngest nominee of CNN People Choice Award in 2003. Dr. Wei’s work was featured by international media all around the world including Discovery Channel, CNN, BBC, Fox News, CNBC, ABC, Time, Wired, ZDF German TV, ARTE French TV, Japan TV, Yomiuri Shimbun, Korean SBS TV, Figaro, Asian Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Guardian UK, LA Times, Channel News Asia, Age, Sunday Times UK, Newsweek, Tatler, Bazaar, Marie Claire New York, Glamour Paris etc. Today, Dr. Wei chairs the Borderless Healthcare Group of companies with the key role of converging global healthcare practices with technology, media and telecommunication applications via strategic partnerships and merger & acquisition.

Philippines Conference Room

Encina Hall Central, 3rd Floor.

Stanford, CA 94305

 

 

Mr. Lee Ligang Zhang Chairman and CEO, Ikang Healthcare Croup, Inc.
Dr. Fred Hung-Jen Yang Chairman, MissionCare, Inc
Dr. Wei Siang Yu Founder, Borderless Healthcare Group
Seminars
Innovations in Primary Care

Air Pollution and Short-Term Mortality in Beijing

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Little empirical evidence exists on the health costs of air pollution in China, one of the most polluted countries in the world. Unsurprisingly, the lack of reliable data on pollution levels and health outcomes impede research. Because the pollution-health relationship is likely non-linear, it is difficult to extrapolate from existing high quality studies in developed countries to ascertain health costs. We address this deficiency by obtaining new data on Beijing’s daily mortality April 2008-April 2013 from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. We combine these data with daily pollution measures from the US Embassy in Beijing, which records particulate matter of 2.5 microns or less in width (PM 2.5). We find that after controlling for weather conditions, year, month, and day of week fixed effects, daily PM2.5 indeed predicts daily mortality, particularly deaths from cardiovaslular disease. A 100 μg/m3 increase in daily PM2.5 is associated with 7 deaths daily, among them 4 cardiovascular deaths, and 0.8 respiratory deaths. Furthermore, deaths among less-educated and outdoor workers show a stronger relationship to PM2.5 levels. Notably, the relationship is robust to controlling for the official measure of Beijing’s air pollution, the average daily air pollution index (API), despite the fact that PM2.5 is measured by 1 monitor at the US embassy whereas API (and mortality) combine data from across the Beijing metropolitan area. Indeed, Beijing’s API does not have a significant relationship to mortality once AQI at the Embassy is accounted for. Our finding supports previous research arguing for measuring PM 2.5 and reporting it promptly to the public. 
 
Shuang Zhang is an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at University of Colorado Boulder. She works on various topics in development, including health, education, environment, political economy, etc,. with a focus on China. She holds a PhD in Economics from Cornell University and was a postdoctoral fellow in SIEPR of Stanford University in 2012-13.

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Shuang Zhang assistant professor in the Department of Economics Speaker University of Colorado Boulder
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An Exploration of China's Mortality Decline under Mao: A Provincial Analysis, 1950-1980

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Between 1950 and 1980, China experienced the most rapid sustained increase in life expectancy of any population in documented global history. We know of no study that has quantitatively assessed the relative importance of the various explanations proposed for this gain in survival. We have created and analysed a new, province-level panel data set spanning the decades between 1950 and 1980 by combining historical information from China's public health archives, official provincial yearbooks, and infant and child mortality records contained in the 1988 National Survey of Fertility and Contraception. Although exploratory, our results suggest that gains in school enrolment and public health campaigns together are associated with 55–70 per cent of China's dramatic reductions in infant and under-5 mortality during our study period. These results underscore the importance of non-medical determinants of population health, and suggest that, in some circumstances, general education of the population may amplify the effectiveness of public health interventions.

Mao Mortality Analysis Data (Stata File)

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Population Studies (Cambridge)
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Karen Eggleston
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Testimony on China's healthcare sector

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On April 3, 2014, Karen Eggleston provided testimony before the U.S-China Economic and Security Review Commission at the "Hearing on China’s Healthcare Sector, Drug Safety, and the U.S.-China Trade in Medical Products."

Some of the questions addressed included:

  • How has the nature of disease in China changed in recent decades? What kind of burden might it place on China's future development?
  • If providers are "inducing" demand by overprescribing drugs, it this a public health crisis in the making?
  • Can you outline the pros and cons of market reform in China's healthcare sector? What might be the proper role of the state of improving healthcare delivery?
  • Kan bing nan, kan bing gui (inaccessible and unaffordable healthcare) is one of the top concerns of ordinary Chinese. Which groups are most affected? Is this a global problem, what lessons can we learn from China?
  • The pharmaceuticals industry features in China's Medium and Long-term Plan for Science and Technology (2006-2020), as well as in more recent measures to promote indigenous innovation and industrial upgrading. Is it fair to say that the Chinese government is prioritizing domestic pharmaceutical companies, which foster economic growth, over the welfare of patients?
  • What were major successes and failures of the 2009 healthcare reforms [in China]? How have those reforms been supplemented by more recent measures (e.g. last November's Third Plenum)?
  • What aspects of China's healthcare reform should the U.S. government and U.S. companies pay most attention to?
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Karen Eggleston

Research Presentations (3 of 4) - Ishiai, Mehta and Wang

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In this session of the Shorenstein APARC Corporate Affiliate Visiting Fellows Research Presentations, the following will be presented:

Tetsuo Ishiai, "How the Advancement of Virtualization Technology and Cloud Computing Affects Future Server Design"

Tejas Mehta, "Theranostic Approach and Its Impact on Health Care"

Wei Wang, "The Challenges and Countermeasures of Chinese Companies Going Global"

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Tetsuo Ishiai

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Corporate Affiliate Visiting Fellow, 2013-14
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Tetsuo Ishiai is a corporate affilaite visiting fellow at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2013-14.  He started his career in 1990 as a hardware engineer for Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Tokyo, Japan.  Ishiai has been engaged in designing and developing hardware components for several server computers and communication systems, as well as managing hardware development teams.  His products include circuit boards for hardware sorting engines and small business computers.  He graduated from Aoyama Gakuin University with a BS in electrical engineering and electronics.

Tetsuo Ishiai Mitsubishi Electric Speaker

Tejas Mehta

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Corporate Affiliate Visiting Fellow, 2013-14
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Tejas Mehta is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2013-14.  Mehta has 16 years of experience in pharmaceutical sales and marketing and has been with Reliance Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd., India since 2005.  Currently, Mehta is the General Manager in the marketing department where he is responsible for forecasting and achieving revenue and profit objectives in line with organization growth plan.  Additionally, he is responsible for understanding market dynamics, preparing marketing plans and creating marketing tools and campaigns to achieve the set objectives.  Mehta received his bachelor's degree in pharmacy from Sardar Patel University in 1997. 

Tejas Mehta Reliance Life Sciences Speaker

Wei Wang

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Corporate Affiliate Visiting Fellow
Wei_Wang.jpg MBA

Wei Wang is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2013-14.  She has worked at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) for 18 years. Currently, she is the Deputy General Manager of the Corporate Banking Deptartment II of ICBC's head office and a member of both the Senior Credit Review Committee and Senior INvestment Review Committee.  Wang holds a certification of Certified Public Accountants, received her master's degree in industrial management engineering from the Harbin Institute Technology of China, and an IMBA degree from the University of Hong Kong.

Wei Wang Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Speaker
Seminars

Overcoming Health Challenges Facing Mongolia: Medical and Entrepreneurial Perspectives

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Average life expectancy in Mongolia is 65 years, much shorter than that of other East Asian countries such as South Korea (78.5 years) and China (72.5 years). Furthermore, healthy life expectancy in Mongolia is even shorter, rendering the situation even more tragic. The World Health Organization estimates that the healthy life expectancy is 53 years for males and 58 years for females.

This colloquium will provide an overview of health in Mongolia and its healthcare system, with expertise from two speakers. First, Dr. Gendengarjaa Baigalimaa, Developing Asia Health Policy Fellow at Shorenstein APARC, will discuss her comparative study of how knowledge of cervical cancer risk factors has influenced behavior changes in Mongolia before and after the introduction of the National Cervical Cancer Program.

Second, Dr. Dashdorj will present on overview of the healthcare initiatives of the Onom Foundation, designed to mitigate excess and premature mortality of Mongolians via knowledge transfer and entrepreneurship. He will report on a March national health policy meeting in Mongolia’s capital and recent strides in health improvement made with the support of the Onom Foundation.

Gendengarjaa Baigalimaa joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) during the 2013-2014 academic year as the Developing Asia Health Policy Fellow. She joins APARC from the Mongolian National Cancer Center, where she serves as a Gynecological Oncologist.

During her appointment as Health Policy Fellow, she is completing her comparative study of how knowledge of cervical cancer risk factors has influenced behavior changes in Mongolia before and after the introduction of the National Cervical Cancer Program.

Baigalimaa is the Executive Director of Mongolian Society of Gynecological Oncologists and is also a member of the International Gynecological Cancer Society (IGCS) in Mongolia, Russia, and France.

Baigalimaa holds a MD from Minsk Belarussia Medical University. She also received a Masters in Health Science from Mongolian Medical University. She is fluent in both Russian and English.

Dr. Dashdorj hails from very humble beginnings. He was born and raised in the southwestern outskirts of Mongolia known as Gobi-Altay province, where the Altay Mountains border with the bare rock covered desert basins of the Gobi. Because of the unique upbringing, Dr. Dashdorj has a profound commitment for making a tangible difference in lives of fellow Mongols. At the same time, he strongly believes that entrepreneurship is the best vehicle for making a difference.

He obtained a Ph.D. in physics from Purdue University in 2005 and was a postdoctoral fellow at the US National Institutes of Health. His research using ultrafast optical spectroscopy and time-resolved x-ray imaging techniques is published in 17 original manuscripts in prominent, peer-reviewed scientific journals, such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2010, Dr. Dashdorj became a faculty member at the Argonne National Laboratory. Despite his successes in scientific research, he gave up his academic career in 2013 to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams, since he truly believed that he can make a tangible difference via entrepreneurship, experimenting with a model of subsidizing philanthropic actions by a certain percentage of equity and profits of a for-profit company.

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Gendengarjaa Baigalimaa

Shorenstein APARC
Encina Hall E332
616 Serra Street
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

(650) 724-5710 (510) 705-2049 (650) 723-6530
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Developing Asia Health Policy Fellow
IMG_4537.jpg MD

Gendengarjaa Baigalimaa joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) during the 2013-2014 acedemic year as the Asia Health Policy Program Fellow. She joins APARC from the Mongolian National Cancer Center, where she serves as a Gynecological Oncologist.

During her appointment as Health Policy Fellow, she will conduct a comparative study of how knowledge of cervical cancer risk factors has influenced behavior changes in Mongolia before and after the introduction of the National Cervical Cancer Program.

Baigalimaa is the Executive Director of Mongolian Society of Gynecological Oncologists and is also a member of the International Gynecological Cancer Society (IGCS) in Mongolia, Russia, and France.

Baigalimaa holds a MD from Minsk Belarussia Medical University. She also received a Masters in Health Science from Mongolian Medical University. She is fluent in both Russian and English.

Gendengarjaa Baigalimaa Developing Asia Health Policy Fellow Speaker Stanford University
Naranbaatar Dashdorj Founder and Chairman of Onom Foundation and a 2014 Sloan Fellow at the Stanford Graduate School of Business Speaker
Seminars

The Effects of Indonesia's Conditional Cash Transfer Program

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This study analyzes the effects of Indonesia's conditional cash transfer program on the local health care market in terms of price, utilization, and quality of care. The CCT program is associated with increased delivery fees and increased utilization of prenatal care and trained attendants for delivery assistance. Consequently, program participants experience improvements in prenatal care quality. 

Margaret Triyana is the Asia Health Policy Post-doctoral fellow. Her main interests are inequality and human capital investments, particularly early health investments in developing countries.

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Philippines Conference Room
Encina Hall 3rd Floor Central
616 Serra Street,
Stanford University

Margaret Triyana

Shorenstein APARC
Encina Hall C331
616 Serra Street
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

(650) 724-5656 (650) 723-6530
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2013-2014 Asia Health Policy Postdoctoral Fellow
triyana_photo.jpg PhD

Margaret (Maggie) Triyana’s main research interests are inequality and human capital investments in developing countries. In particular, she is interested in the effects social policy changes on children’s health outcomes. As a Postdoctoral Fellow, she will analyze the effects of rural-urban migration in Indonesia and China, as well as the impact of health insurance expansion in Indonesia and Vietnam.

Triyana received a PhD in Public Policy from the University of Chicago in 2013.

 

Working Papers

“Do Health Care Providers Respond to Demand-Side Incentives? Evidence from Indonesia“

“The Effects of Community and Household Interventions on Birth Outcomes: Evidence from Indonesia”

“The Longer Term Effects of the ‘Midwife in the Village’ Program in Indonesia”

“The Sources of Wage Growth in a Developing Country” (with Ioana Marinescu)

Margaret Triyana Postdoctoral Fellow in Asia Health Policy Speaker Stanford University
Seminars
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