Folasade P. May, MD, PhD, MPhil, Published in Nature on COVID-19 Health Inequities and in Healio on How Academic Medicine Can Respond to Racial Injustice in America
Dr. May, director of the Melvin & Bren Simon GI Quality Program, collaborated with colleagues at several other instutions to publish a comment in Nature titled COVID-19 and the Other Pandemic: Populations Made Vulnerable by Systemic Inequity. The comment examines the perpetuation of systemic inequity through social determinants of health during COVID-19.

Healio published Dr. May's perspective From Words to Actions to Change: How Medicine, Academia Can Respond to Racial Injustice in America. This piece discusses how we can transition from discussions about race and racism in academia to action that addresses systemic racism.


Low-value Preoperative Care for Cataract Surgery
Modern Healthcare, in an article about the cost of unnecessary health care, highlighted research led by John Mafi, MD, and published in JAMA Internal Medicine finding that reducing low-value preoperative care for cataract surgery patients was associated with thousands of dollars in savings. Dr. Mafi, an assistant professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research, was quoted.


Getting Doctors to Make Better Decisions
Becker's Hospital Review highlighted a recent Harvard Business Review article by Dr. Yusuke Tsugawa and Dr. John Mafi about how clinical decision-making may be too complex to be consistently improved through financial incentives and behavioral nudges. Long-lasting improvement may also require changes in organizational culture. Tsugawa and Mafi are both assistant professors of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research.


John Mafi, MD, MPH Discusses Achieving Greater Value for Health Care
Dr. Mafi, an assistant professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research, was quoted in a Commonwealth Fund article about physician-led efforts to achieve greater value for health care dollars.


Folasade P. May, MD, PhD, MPhil – Manuscript Published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology
Dr. May, assistant professor of medicine, had a manuscript published in the February 2018 issue of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. “When Should Screening Stop for Elderly Individuals at Average and Increased Risk for Colorectal Cancer?” is an article that is part of a series on enhancing the value of care in gastroenterology and hepatology. Each article in this series examines specific clinical scenarios in which the value of care can be improved over a range of sub-specialties in the field.


Improving HPV Vaccine Rates Among Latino Teens
California Health Report described a new study by Roshan Bastani, a professor of health policy and management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, that will investigate methods to increase the number of Latino teenagers vaccinated against human papillomavirus.


Washington Resident's Tab for Unneeded Care in a Year: $280 Million-Plus
Dr. John Mafi, an assistant professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research, commented in a Modern Healthcare story about high costs for low-value medical services and unneeded care.


Low-cost Health Services and Reducing Unnecessary Spending
Managed Care Executive reported on research led by Dr. John Mafi, assistant professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research, suggesting that low-cost, high-volume health services account for a high percentage of unnecessary health spending.


Division-Led Team Honored for Video on Colon Cancer Screening
Folasade P. May, MD, PhD, MPhil, physician and health services researcher and her team in the UCLA Vatche & Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, was honored in October at the annual meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) for its video designed to promote colorectal cancer screening. The UCLA group won first place in the Best Video by an Academic Center category at ACG's third annual SCOPY Awards (Service Award for Colorectal Cancer Outreach, Prevention & Year-Round Excellence), which recognizes the achievements of ACG members in their community engagement, education and awareness efforts for colorectal cancer prevention. ACG members are invited to submit examples of projects and programs that demonstrate outstanding creativity and commitment to spreading the potentially lifesaving message of the importance of colorectal cancer screening and prevention. The winning video by Dr. May's team features a conversation between a provider and a patient that dispels myths about colorectal cancer and encourages patients to get screened. The video will be further developed toward the ultimate goal of showing it to UCLA patients as part of the UCLA Colon Health Program's initiative to bring screening rates up to 80 percent, in conjunction with the national goal of 80 percent by 2018 for colorectal cancer screening. “It's a great honor to be recognized by the American College of Gastroenterology for our team's effort to increase awareness about colorectal cancer, and to emphasize that screening is an easy way to save lives,” Dr. May says. In addition to Dr. May, the team that created the video includes Drs. Dean Ehrlich, Shelley Schwartz, and Nasim Assar and Anna Dermenchyan, RN, all from the UCLA Department of Medicine.

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Low-cost Health Services and Reducing Unnecessary Spending
HealthDay NewsMedscape, the American Journal of Managed Care, and National Pharmaceutical Council reported on research led by Dr. John Mafi, assistant professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research, suggesting that low-cost, high-volume health services account for a high percentage of unnecessary health spending. DoctorsLoungePsychiatry Advisor and MPR carried the HealthDay article.


Arpan Patel, MD, Awarded Researcher Innovator Award at STAR Symposium (2017)
The Research Innovator Award was founded in 2015 by the UCLA STAR Program to highlight outstanding research by STAR fellows. The $500 award is given to only three posters each STAR Symposium based on scientific significance, approach and innovation. Dr. Patel's poster detailed a study he did on describing palliative care and resource utilization in patients with cirrhosis during their terminal hospitalization. Dr. Patel was the first in digestive diseases to win the award. (2017) View poster >


Colorectal Cancer Screenings Higher in Veterans Who Use VA or Military Health Care
VA Research Currents, research news from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, highlighted a study by a team with VA, UCLA and Duke, showing veterans with health coverage related to their veteran status were more likely to have up-to-date screenings for colorectal cancer than vets who used private health insurance instead. Folasade P. May, MD, PhD, MPhil, assistant professor-in-residence of medicine at the Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, lead author on the article, applauds VA's efforts to raise screening levels: "Colorectal cancer is common and deadly. But we can prevent disease by screening. The VA has had major success in this area and should be recognized for exceeding national benchmarks in colorectal screening." (2017)


Folasade P. May, MD, PhD, MPhil Receives Seed Grant to Help Eliminate Cancer Health Disparities
Dr. May, assistant professor of medicine in the Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases and co-director of the Gloabal Health Education Program for the UCLA Center for World Health, received the "CDU- UCLA Cancer Center Partnership to Eliminate Cancer Health Disparities Seed Grant" from Charles Drew University. The project is a partnership with the “To Help Everyone Wellness Centers” in South Los Angeles and aims to investigate the specific patient-, provider-, and system-level barriers to completion of follow-up colonoscopy after a stool-based colorectal cancer screening test is positive. (2017)


Study Shows Success of UCLA Program's Method of Training Physician-Scientists
UCLA's Specialty Training and Advanced Research (STAR) Program recently published a paper in the February issue of Journal of Graduate Medical Education that tracks all 123 graduates from the first 20 years of the STAR Program (through 2013). The piece demonstrates the success of the program with over 80 percent of graduates conducting research in academic or biotechnology careers and 71 percent with academic appointments. The Division of Digestive Diseases has graduated several of these STAR fellows over the past several years. (2016) Read more in the UCLA Newsroom > To download the paper >


Dr. May Awarded UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center Seed Grant
Fola May, MD, PhD, MPhil, assistant professor of medicine in the division of digestive diseases, was awarded the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center Seed Grant which will help fund the project "A Community-Academic Partnership to Improve Colorectal Cancer Screening in South Los Angeles." She will be working with members of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health to address colorectal cancer disparities in ethnic minorities. The support allows a collaboration between the To Help Everyone (T.H.E) Health and Wellness Centers and UCLA to improve colorectal cancer screening uptake among Latinos and African-Americans in the South Los Angeles Federally-Qualified Health Center (FQHC or Community Health Center) where screening rates are low. (2016)


Why African-Americans Are At a Greater Risk of Colon Cancer?
Dr. Folasade May, assistant professor of medicine in the division of digestive diseases and member of UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center Health and At-Risk Population Program, commented Sept. 2 in a KCRW 89.9FM story on recent research finding that more black men and women will die from colon cancer compared to their white counterparts due to lack of education by their physician, higher tobacco related illnesses and increased obesity rates. Research also finds that African American men are also more likely to refuse preventative care such as colonoscopies. (2015) Listen to Interview >