LOS ANGELES, CA, December 07, 2018 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Ronald Andersen, PH.D with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. Dr. Andersen has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued while working over fifty years in the field of Health Services Research. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Andersen received a fellowship funded by the National Heart Institute in 1960 to study the emerging fields of health services research and medical sociology. He trained in a program directed by Robert Eichhorn, PhD. in the Department of Sociology at Purdue University. In 1963 he was hired by the Center for Health Administration Studies (CHAS) and the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) both at the University of Chicago to direct the third in a series of three health care use and expenditure surveys based on probability samples of the total non-institutionalized population of the United States. This series initiated by Odin Anderson, PhD (a founder of the fields of health services research and medical sociology) in 1952 were the first consumer health surveys to provide estimates of use and expenditures for all people in the U.S. Policymakers, providers, and researchers used these estimates for assessing the performance of the health care system and its impact on people of varying sociodemographic, economic, and illness levels. Ronald Andersen and Odin W. Anderson, 1967, A Decade of Health Services: Social Survey Trends in Use and Expenditure. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Andersen was hired with the understanding that as he directed the third national survey he would also be supported to use data from the survey for his PhD dissertation. Andersen was struck by the large disparities shown by data from the survey in kinds and amounts of health care people received and concerned about why some had good access to care and others did not. To better understand these discrepancies, he developed for his dissertation the Behavioral Model of Health Services Use completed in 1968: Ronald Andersen, 1968, A Behavioral Model of Families' Use of Health Services. Chicago: Center for Health Administration Studies, University of Chicago, Research Series No. 25. He continued to work on the access problem using the Behavioral Model of Health Services use for the next 50 years.
Andersen worked at the University of Chicago from 1963 to 1991 as research associate/instructor to Professor and at The University of California at Los Angeles from 1991 to 2018 as the Fred and Pamela Wasserman Professor in Health Services and then the Wasserman Professor Emeritus. A continuing work of Andersen and his colleagues throughout his career has been to introduce revisions to the Behavioral Model seen as necessary to: (1) address changes taking place in health services delivery and organization; (2) better understand and measure access and its determinants and (3) include in the Model outcomes for patients according to their access to health services. These outcomes include measures of patients' health status as well as their general wellbeing and quality of life. This Model has been used extensively nationally and internationally as a framework for utilization and cost studies of general populations as well as special studies of minorities, low income, children, women, the elderly, oral health, the homeless, and the HIV-positive population. The sixth and last revision of the Model was published as: Ronald M. Andersen, Pamela L. Davidson and Sebastian E. Baumeister. 2014 -- Chapter 2 -- Improving Access to Care in America in: Jerald Kominski (ed.), Changing the U.S. Health Care System (4th ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Andersen led four national consumer health surveys. The first three focused on both people's expenditures as well as their use of health services: Ronald Andersen, Joanna Lion and Odin W. Anderson, 1976, Two Decades of Health Services: Social Survey Trends in Use and Expenditure. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger Publishing Co. The fourth survey was the first national health survey devoted almost entirely to measuring access to care of the U.S. population. This survey was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Lu Ann Aday, PhD, served as its study director. Lu Ann Aday, Ronald Andersen and Gretchen V. Fleming, 1980, Health Care in the U.S. Equitable for Whom? Beverly Hills: Sage Publications.
Andersen has also undertaken numerous health surveys of local and regional populations to evaluate health services delivery programs designed to improve access to medical care of these populations. His other research interests include international comparisons of health services systems, medical and dental school curriculum to promote improved access to care provided by physicians and dentists; effective and efficient delivery of inpatient and outpatient physician health services by health care delivery organizations, and evaluations of geriatric and primary care delivery. Over the course of this career Andersen has authored or co-authored 26 books and monographs and about 300 journal articles and book chapters. The citation and impact indices for these works suggest that some have been read and used rather frequently by health services students, researchers, teachers, planners, managers or practitioners. His research contributions to health services research have been recognized by awards including: The National Academy of Medicine Membership (formerly Institute of Medicine) – 1984; The American Sociology Association, Medical Sociology Section, Leo G. Reeder Award – 1994; Association for Health Services Research, Substantial Accomplishments and Distinguished Career – 1996; The Baxter Allegiance Foundation Health Services Research Prize – 1999; and The Dickenson Professorship: Honors outstanding teaching, research and service since retirement – 2012.
In 1968 Andersen offered his first course at the University of Chicago: Medical Sociology – a required course for MBA students enrolled in the Graduate Program in Health Administration. He directed this Program from 1980 to 1990. In 2014 he offered his last course at the University of California at Los Angeles: Health Program Evaluation - a required course for Public Health students enrolled in the MPH Program in Health Policy and Management. He directed this Program from 1991 to 1996. Andersen taught over 800 students in these two programs committed to more effective and efficient delivery of health services. In 1996 the Public Health Student Association, UCLA presented him with the Faculty of the Year Award. He has supervised the dissertations of some 50 successful doctoral candidates. Working with them before and after their graduation has been a most rewarding part of his career. Most of them have pursued careers in health services research, teaching and/or administration. Andersen has established endowed financial assistance programs for deserving students doing research or program evaluation projects who have completed at least one year in multiyear curriculums at three universities for: (1) Continuing MPH and PhD students in Department of Health Policy & Management, Fielding School of Public Health, UCLA in 2012; 2) Continuing PhD students in Department of Sociology, Purdue University in 2013; and (3) Undergraduate Students in the Department of Sociology, Santa Clara University in 2017.
Regarding "service" during his career, he considered work he did for public, nonprofit and community organizations and for journals (beyond limited reviewing of articles submitted for publication). Service includes, work as chair, director, consultant, advisor, Board chair/member, editor and contributing researcher for the organization's improvement. It excludes research and teaching activities normally required or expected with his academic appointment. An association with an organization is listed if he considered the association required "appreciable effort" and/or that the fact of the association might contribute to the organization's reputation or goal attainment. He may well have worked with an organization on more than one occasion during his career but that organization will be listed only once.
He reports by far the most demanding of the "services" he assumed during his time at the University of Chicago was his work as director of Center for Health Administration Studies and the Graduate Program in the Health Administration Studies from 1980 to 1990. .And similarly the most demanding of assumed services at UCLA was his work as Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management for seven intermittent years during the period from 1991 to 2003. While Andersen was honored to be selected for these organization leadership roles he felt obligated to accept them in an effort to protect and nurture an environment facilitating excellent health services research and health management and policy education in his universities. Other organizations he served that are part of his university are not listed here but may be gleaned from his 2018 Resume. Some external organizations and journals served include: Journal of Health and Social Behavior: American Public Health Association; Medical Care; American Sociology Association, Medical Sociology Section; Association for Health Services Research; National Academy of Medicine; National Institute of Dental Research; Health Administration Press; Association of University Programs in Health Administration; Western Network for Education in Health Administration; Maxicare Foundation; Medical Care Research and Review; Pacific Sociology Association; Purdue University; Santa Clara University; Agency for Health Care Policy and Research; Rand Corporation; National Center for Health Statistics; World Health Organization; Uppsala University; National Blue Cross Association; Chicago Urban League; Chicago Heart Association; Illinois Cancer Council; Chicago Heart Association, National Heart, Blood, and Lung Institute, Arizona State University; Midwest Latino Research Center, Florida Rural Health Research Center; Stockholm University; County of Los Angeles, Department of Health Services; University of Michigan; Public Health Institute, Berkeley, CA; City of Chicago–Committee to Assess Oral Health Needs; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; Kaiser Family Foundation; Charles Drew University; Health Services Research; Research Triangle Institute; United Way of Chicago; Los Angeles County Commission on HIV; Journal of the American Medical Association and U.S. House of Representatives Sub Committee on Health and the Environment.
Andersen concluded this professional narrative with a few random observations about the current state of access to care in the U.S. and essential contributions of family to career development:
He defines Access to care as actual use of personal health services and everything that facilitates or impedes that use. "Good" access to care means not only getting medical care but also getting to the right services at the right time to promote improved health outcomes. Over the course of his 50+ year career he has observed considerable improvement in some access to care measures such as whether or not people have health insurance and the number of medical services received per person. While access to care according to these measures improved for all major population groups, minority and low income groups continue to lag the others. The U.S. health care system still has major problems delivering good access care to its people: (1) some do not receive good access care because it costs too much; (2) some do not receive good access care because none is available to them, (3) some do not receive good access care even though it is available; and (4) some do not receive good access care because they are using unnecessary or inappropriate care. We have some fairly good information about why these access problems exist and plausible solutions provided by health services research. The huge challenge today is the difficulties of implementing the proposed solutions.
Andersen's family has contributed mightily to his career success: (1) His older sister Margie paved the way for him early on by convincing their family that "higher education" was the path to betterment of self and others; (2) His colleagues have concluded that his productivity is largely the result of Diane - his spouse of over 50 years. She has stayed with him supporting his work and ably handling most all important family needs. The colleagues wish they had a "Diane" in their family; (3) His daughter Rachel (a successful actor) and his son-in-law Scott (a successful motivational speaker) have tactfully showed him that positive audience impact is usually greater with an entertaining delivery style than with an arid presentation of even verified facts -- a good lesson learned but still not always so aptly applied according to some student lecture ratings.
In recognition of outstanding contributions to his profession and the Marquis Who's Who community, Dr. Andersen has been featured on the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement website. Please visit www.ltachievers.com for more information about this honor.
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