Dartmouth Events

"Unhealthy Politics: The Battle over Evidence-Based Medicine," Eric Patashnik

Eric Patashnik, Julis-Rabinowitz Professor of Public Policy and Political Science, and Director of Brown's Master of Public Affairs program, offers insights into health policy.

Thursday, April 19, 2018
5:00pm – 6:15pm
Room 003, Rockefeller Center
Intended Audience(s): Public
Categories: Lectures & Seminars

The U.S. medical system is touted as the most advanced in the world, yet many common treatments are not based on sound science. Treatments can go into widespread use before they are rigorously evaluated, and every year patients are harmed because they receive too many procedures — and too few treatments that really work. Professor Eric Patashnik's book Unhealthy Politics sheds new light on why the government’s response to this troubling situation has been so inadequate, and why efforts to improve the evidence base of U.S. medicine continue to cause so much political controversy and public trepidation.

Eric M. Patashnik is Julis-Rabinowitz Professor of Public Policy and Political Science, and Director of Brown's Master of Public Affairs program. Patashnik is the editor of the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law. He is also Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Before coming to Brown, Patashnik held faculty positions at University of Virginia (UVA), UCLA, and Yale University. During his time at UVA, he served as associate dean and acting dean at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Patashnik is the author and editor of seven books including: Unhealthy Politics: The Battle over Evidence-Based Medicine, with Alan S. Gerber and Conor M. Dowling (Princeton University Press, 2017); Congress and Policy Making in the 21st Century, co-edited with Jeffery Jenkins (Cambridge University Press, 2016); and Reforms at Risk: What Happens After Major Policy Changes Are Enacted (Princeton University Press, 2008), which received the Louis Brownlow Book Award for best book on public administration.

Patashnik received his B.A. from the University of Virginia and both his Master of Public Policy and Ph.D. (political science) from the University of California at Berkeley. 

For more information, contact:
Joanne Needham
603-646-2207

Events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.