50th Lester Breslow Distinguished Lecture | Dr. Roshan Bastani: "Building the Evidence for Evidence-Based Practice"
Join the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health for the 50th Lester Breslow Distinguished Lecture on Wednesday, April 23, from 12 pm – 1 pm PT, via Zoom. The event will be hosted by the dean of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Dr. Ron Brookmeyer and feature Dr. Roshan Bastani delivering her lecture, "Building the Evidence for Evidence-Based Practice."
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ABOUT DR. ROSHAN BASTANI
Dr. Roshan Bastani is a professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. She is Director of the UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity and Co-Director of the Center for Cancer Prevention and Control Research. In the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, she is Director for Disparities and Community Engagement and Co-Director of the Cancer Control and Survivorship program. She served an 11-year term as Associate Dean for Research in the School of Public Health.
Dr. Bastani is a social and health psychologist who has been conducting health equity intervention research for over 35 years, with a focus on implementing rigorous yet pragmatic individual, community, and especially system-directed intervention trials to improve quality of care and health outcomes. The goal of this work is to translate the benefits of evidence-based prevention, control and treatment strategies to the population at large. She has had continuous research funding from the National Institutes of Health since 1988.
Dr. Bastani has led a large number of studies, in both clinical and community settings, including among low-income, underinsured, ethnically minoritized and other underserved groups. Her research spans the developmental continuum and includes studies on cancer screening and diagnostic follow up; hepatitis B screening; tobacco control; melanoma prevention; obesity control; liver disease; and HPV vaccine uptake. Recent examples of her work include several system-focused pragmatic implementation trials to increase HPV vaccine uptake and colorectal cancer screening in the Los Angeles County Health Department and Federally Qualified Health Centers, and a system-level obesity prevention trial set in preschools.
Her research is conceptually grounded and includes strong and equitable community partnerships. She is the lead developer of the Multi-Level Health Outcomes Framework which is a socio-ecological conceptual model to guide descriptive and intervention research in disease prevention and control. Her methodological expertise includes qualitative and quantitative methods; research design; comparative effectiveness trials; program evaluation; implementation science; and utilization of electronic health records and other administrative databases for research.
ABOUT DR. LESTER BRESLOW
Dr. Lester Breslow -- former dean of the UCLA Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health, professor emeritus of health services, and a leading figure in public health for seven decades -- was a visionary with a well-established track record for being ahead of his time. As early as the 1940s, he linked tobacco use to disease in three studies that were later cited in the U.S. Surgeon General’s landmark 1964 report.
Breslow is widely known for his early advocacy and research into health promotion and disease prevention. Breslow’s pioneering Alameda County studies beginning in the early 1960s were among the first to show that simple health practices — such as getting regular exercise and sleep, not drinking excessively, not smoking, and maintaining a healthy weight — add both years and quality to life.
While these conclusions are taken for granted today, the idea of such a strong connection between lifestyle and health was seen as "bizarre" at the time, Breslow noted decades later. He would smile when recalling the response of the National Institutes of Health panel of scientists that reviewed the initial study proposal: "Unanimous rejection." When the study was completed, even Breslow was shocked at the magnitude of the results, which helped usher in current thinking about health and fitness.
READ MORE about the Lester Breslow Distinguished Lecture series.