Tarlov to Lead Major Research Program to Examine Social Determinants of Illness

HOUSTON, April 8, 1999 -- The resources of Rice University and the University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center will be joined formally for the first time in a major research program to identify social and societal determinants of the health of the world's population and to develop public policies that could contribute to a significant decrease in illness and increase in well-being and productivity.

Rice and the University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center officials announced today the research team--to be led by Dr. Alvin R. Tarlov of Harvard University--will be based at Rice's James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy.

As another component of this cooperative health policy initiative, Baylor College of Medicine has joined Rice to establish an endowed chair for a scholar who will specialize in health policy and health economics.

Tarlov is currently executive director of the Health Institute at the New England Medical Center in Boston and professor of health promotion and chairman of the Mind/Brain/Body Society and Health Initiative at Harvard University. Formerly, Tarlov was president of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation in California and chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Chicago.

Tarlov has accepted a position as the Sid Richardson and Taylor and Robert H. Ray Senior Fellow in Health Policy at Rice's Baker Institute and a professorship at the UT-Houston School of Public Health. Tarlov will move to Rice in the fall to launch the research program.

The Baker Institute position is funded by a $2 million endowment from the Sid Richardson Foundation and distributions from the Ray Endowment and UT-Houston. In addition to the Tarlov appointment at Rice's Baker Institute, a substantial amount of other resources are being committed to this project. Rice and UT-H
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Contact: Lia Unrau
unrau@rice.edu
713-831-4793
Rice University
8-Apr-1999