Today's health problems are too complex for any one discipline to solve. It takes a community of researchers and teachers to make progress toward achieving a healthy community.
Director, UCSF Center for Health and Community
UCSF has been a leader in research from the bench to the bedside. It has, however, become increasingly evident that biomedical interventions focused on individual patients and specific diseases are limited. Health care in the 21st Century needs to address the behavioral, environmental, social and cultural aspects of health and health care delivery. Current estimates are that 50% of premature deaths are due to behavioral factors, 20% to environmental factors, 20% to genetic factors and 10% to provision of care.
Behaviors' which contribute to the chances that we will develop a disease and affect our recovery from dieases includes cigarettes and substance abuse, lack of exercise, high fat diets, violence, injury, and exposure to stress. These behaviors which influence our health, take place in a social context. They are shaped by our family and peer relationships, community norms, public policies, as well as health care system itself.
The Center for Health and Community is a ground-breaking venture. We bring together researchers, clinicians, and community participants to help frame questions that are important for the health care choices we face. We are also committed to teaching health professional students and graduate students of the future about the whole person and the interaction of the environment with individual genetics and biology to influence health. Today's health problems are too complex for any one discipline to solve. It takes a community of researchers and teachers to make progress toward achieving healthy members of a healthy community.