MAY 2025

Policy Perspectives: Adolescent Depression

IHPS faculty Jason Nagata, MD, was recently interviewed by PBS News about his recent study on pre-teen social media use and subsequent depression. Nagata and colleagues found that "those kids who had big spikes in their social media use from year to year then subsequently had bigger spikes in their depression".

Many IHPS faculty are looking at adolescents and how to treat depression. Chuan Mei Lee, MD, MA, Christina Mangurian, MD, MAS, Naomi Bardach, MD, and colleagues assessed need factors associated with adequate treatment utilization among adolescents experiencing depression. Marissa Raymond-Flesch, MD, MPH and colleagues look at the detrimental effects of repeated, racial/ethnic discrimination during early adolescence on mental health outcomes both during adolescence and later in young adulthood for Latine populations

IHPS FACULTY SPOTLIGHT CONVERSATION

Charles Windon, MD

"Many of the people believed to have Alzheimer's do not actually have the biomarkers of the disease. If I am specifically focused on tracking Alzheimer's pathologies, I'm missing being able to treat these other individuals and prevent dementia because there is potentially something else that is causing their impairment."

Charles Windon is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center (MAC) and affiliated faculty at IHPS. In his current role, he participates in the clinical care and management of those with neurodegenerative conditions, conducts research focused on biomarkers of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) among diverse populations, and leads MAC outreach efforts to the African American community in the San Francisco Bay Area. His research efforts seek to explore the use of novel imaging and blood-based biomarkers for the detection and diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias in populations that have been historically excluded from research. He also seeks to understand the intersection between social determinants of health (where we live, play, and work) and ethnocultural identity in the context of ADRD biomarkers. Through his outreach efforts and volunteer clinical care in community clinics in San Francisco, he seeks to bring education about brain health and better care to communities that are at highest risk for unfavorable disease outcomes related to ADRD.

IHPS FOCUS

Grace Lin, MD, MAS

 What are you currently working on?

I am working on evaluating the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of obesity medications.

What drew you to work on this?

The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) is a non-profit organization that does health technology assessment of new and emerging therapies. Their assessments help stakeholders understand the value of new therapies, and matches my interest in assuring that high value, clinically appropriate care is given to patients.

What's next?

I will continue to work with ICER to evaluate new therapies, and also evaluate real-world access to those new therapies.

Alissa Sideman, PhD, MPH, MA

What are you currently working on?

I currently am PI of two grants, as well as a collaborator on several others, focused on strengthening dementia care in primary care settings and identifying ways to better support family caregivers of people with dementia. Funded by the CDPH Alzheimer’s Disease Program, Understanding the Health and Long-Term Supports and Services Needs of Refugees and Immigrants with Dementia and their Caregivers in California aims to understand the experiences and needs of immigrants and refugees with dementia and their caregivers, as well as to assess the capacity of health and long-term services and supports and community-based organizations to provide dementia-specific care. This qualitative study is operating out of three sites in California: UCSF, UC Davis, and UC San Diego. Funded by the National Institute on Aging, my R01, Building Primary Care Capacity in the Dementia Diagnostic Process uses comparative ethnography within 6 primary care practices across California in urban and rural settings to generate data from people with dementia, caregivers, primary care teams, and health systems and policy leaders about dementia detection, diagnosis, and care in primary care settings.

What drew you to work on this?

I was drawn to this work through seeing the profound emotional and social toll that dementia takes on individuals, families, communities, and care systems, as well as the desire to better understand the experiences and needs of the clinicians and clinical staff who support individuals with dementia and their families. As a medical anthropologist, I have also long been interested in how structural inequalities shape people’s experiences of illness, caregiving, and the health care system. Dementia, in particular, reveals the deep connections between cognitive decline, aging, migration, different care settings, and access to care.

What's next?

We’re in the midst of data collection on both of these studies, so anticipate a lot of data analysis in the short term, and community-engaged work to identify solutions and intervention targets in the longer-term. I hope to continue developing projects that bridge medical anthropology, health policy, and clinical science to inform more equitable dementia care models- both within and beyond the healthcare system.

Anthony DiGiorgio, DO

What are you currently working on?

I'm investigating various funding streams for the safety-net, specifically 340B, state directed payments, and Medicaid MCOs. I'm using administrative datasets to analyze how the safety net gets funded and how much of that funding makes its way to the patients.

What drew you to work on this?

I've always worked at safety-net facilities, from Charity Hospital in New Orleans to San Francisco General Hospital. I've witnessed how much financing and funding streams influence access to care (or lack thereof) and would like to find ways to empower patients to get the best care they can. 

What's next?

More of the same! It's a complex web and hopefully my insights can help influence policymakers at the state and federal levels.

Valerie Flaherman, MD, MPH

What are you currently working on?

Launching U.S. recruitment for the Global Scales of Early Development (GSED) Norms and Standards Study! This groundbreaking study led by the World Health Organization will hopefully lead to children in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) having a free tool for neurodevelopmental assessment. Please spread the word to any parents you know that we are recruiting healthy children under 3, contact us at GSED@ucsf.edu!

What drew you to work on this?

I submitted a grant studying the effect of a new nutritional supplement on child health in the West African country of Guinea-Bissau, one of the poorest countries in the world. Our team had hoped to include neurodevelopmental assessments in the research plan, but their cost was prohibitive for use in LMIC because currently available early childhood neurodevelopmental assessments are all proprietary. Joining with PI Susanne Martin Herz to recruit for GSED Norms and Standards is a way for me to work towards a future where all children can have full neurodevelopmental assessments, regardless of what country they live in.

What's next?

Next up, I am working with the World Food Programme and the Guinea-Bissau Ministry of Health to test a new food supplement for use in early childhood. We hope to be able to use the GSED in our Guinea-Bissau work after U.S. recruitment is completed and study results are available!

FRONTLINE FINDINGS

MEDIA MENTIONS

Since its founding 50 years ago, IHPS has been dedicated to training the next generation of leaders in interdisciplinary research to solve our most important health policy issues. In celebration of our 50th anniversary and to honor our founders, Phil Lee and Lew Butler, we established an endowment fund for the Philip R. Lee Fellowship. We hope to continue to keep this fund and our fellowship program robust.

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IHPS has recently begun using LinkedIn and Instagram. Please follow us at the link below! We will be sharing valuable updates regarding the work the IHPS community is engaged in, insights on current health policy-related matters, and information regarding IHPS-related events regularly as well as infographics of faculty work