Helene L. Lipton, PhD
Professor of Pharmacy and Health Policy

• geriatrics
• medical sociology
• drug utilization review
• outcomes and quality of care

Helene Levens Lipton, Ph.D. is a Professor of Health Policy and Pharmacy in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, and a core faculty member at the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, School of Medicine, UCSF.
Dr. Lipton has long-standing research and teaching interests in the effects of pharmaceutical policies and innovations on the quality and economy of physicians' prescribing practices, on vulnerable patients' drug use, and on the pharmaceutical marketplace.

Dr. Lipton has conducted NIH-funded randomized controlled trials of interventions to improve physicians' prescribing practices and to promote safe and effective drug use among geriatric patients. Using case study analyses, she has investigated the cost and quality impacts of Pharmaceutical Benefit Managers (PBMs) on medical groups and HMOs. Within the past year (2004), Dr. Lipton examined: policy options surrounding the provision of outpatient prescription drug benefits for Medicare beneficiaries; the nature and impact of physician groups' assuming financial risk for drug costs and other innovative drug use management strategies; the impact of electronic prescribing innovations (e.g., PDAs) on quality and costs of care; and the nature and effects of Pharmaceutical Assistance Programs designed to provide indigent patients with access to needed drug therapies.

Dr. Lipton is currently serving as the first Visiting Scholar at the Institute for One World Health (IOWH). IOWH is the only nonprofit drug company in the U.S., dedicated to testing and bringing to market safe, effective, and affordable medicines for diseases afflicting millions in the developing world. Working with Dr. Victoria Hale, founder and CEO of IOWH, and colleagues, Dr. Lipton will be examining the ethical and social issues surrounding the conduct of clinical drug trials in developing countries. She also will be participating in the assessment of public health outcomes of drugs in development by IOWH for infectious diseases and examining innovative drug distribution systems designed to deliver essential medicines to those most in need.

Partners in D, the three-and a-half year program will create an educational system and collaborative outreach network for pharmacy school students and faculty members, and community pharmacists. Under the grant, UCSF will work with the six other schools of pharmacy in California to be involved in the Partners in D program.

UC News Service link regarding Amgen grant