Dr. Robert I. Field has been named chair of the Health Policy and Public Health Department at University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. He had served as acting chair since the department’s establishment in 2006.
Dr. Field, a professor of health policy, joined the University in 1999. He established the school’s Health Policy Program, which included the first social science doctorate in its history. The program was combined with one in public health to create the department with a mission of preparing students to address the challenges facing America’s healthcare system and producing cutting-edge research and scholarship in the field.
Dr. Field, a noted health policy scholar, has published widely and speaks regularly on legal and ethical aspects of healthcare. His recent work covers issues in vaccines, managed care, genetic screening, drug safety, and healthcare industry regulation. He is the author of Health Care Regulation in America: Complexity, Confrontation and Compromise, a comprehensive overview of the regulation of healthcare that was recently published by Oxford University Press. He is also a frequent commentator on health policy issues in the media.
“I have enjoyed the challenge of building a strong health policy program at the oldest college of pharmacy in the United States,” Dr. Field said. “It is gratifying to see it expand into a full department that continues to produce important research and scholarship on policy issues affecting the health of Americans, and to educate future leaders in the field. The issues facing the healthcare system seem to grow in importance each day, and I am proud of the University’s efforts to help address those concerns.”
Dr. Field is also a senior fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at University of Pennsylvania, and a member of the adjunct faculty of the Wharton School. Prior to joining University of the Sciences, he was in charge of business planning and development for the primary care network of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. He has also conducted health policy research at the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and the Center for Law and Health Sciences at Boston University, and has practiced health law with the Philadelphia firm of Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll.
Dr. Field received a PhD in psychology from Boston University, a master’s degree in public health from the Harvard School of Public Health, a law degree from Columbia University, and an undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Harvard College. He is a native of New York City and currently resides in Merion Station, Pa. with his family.