It's the HEALTH in Health Care

2011 Miriam and Peter E. Haas Centennial Professorship Lecture on Public Service and the University: Gabriel Garcia

The Goal of Health Care is HEALTH, not Care

Health, both the health of individuals and of communities, has more to do with circumstances than with the availability of health care. Students interested in the health professions are generally unaware of this relationship, and schools of medicine devote most of their curriculum to health care, not health. Former Haas Center Faculty Director Gabriel Garcia discussed the Patient Advocacy program, a service-learning approach to understanding the root causes of health problems of our diverse communities.

The Miriam and Peter E. Haas Centennial Professorship Lecture on Public Service and the University is held annually under the guidance of the Miriam and Peter Haas Centennial Professor in Public Service, and is sponsored by the Haas Center. The current chair, Al Camarillo, presented the inaugural lecture in 2004, and selects and works with annual speakers.

Gabriel Garcia became the Haas Center's second faculty director in September 2006, succeeding Leonard Ortolano, and served through 2010. As faculty director, Garcia served half time, focusing on policymaking, fundraising and teaching. Garcia has been a member of the center's Faculty Steering Committee since 1998 and has served on its service-learning grants advisory committee.

A hepatologist and Professor of Medicine at the Stanford Medical School, Garcia's research has focused on the natural history and treatment of viral hepatitis. He earned his medical degree from New York University, completed his postgraduate training at Stanford, and then joined the Baylor College of Medicine, where he remained until 1989 when he returned to join the Internal Medicine faculty at Stanford. In addition to conducting clinical research, Garcia takes care of his patients with liver diseases, teaches medical students, and engages with undergraduates in service-learning opportunities. He has taught a Stanford Introductory Seminar entitled The Human Side of Medicine, currently teaches a year-long service-learning course entitled Patient Advocacy and participated as faculty advisor for two Alternative Spring Break trips on Health Care for Marginalized Communities in the Central Valley. He is Associate Dean of Admissions at Stanford School of Medicine.