Health Reform Expert to Deliver Chancellor's Health Policy Lecture

JudyAnn Bigby, MD, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, will talk about "The Massachusetts Health Reform Experience" for the 2011 Chancellor's Health Policy Lecture on Monday, Sept. 26.

JudyAnn Bigby, MD

The UCSF community is invited to attend the lecture, slated to run from noon to 1 p.m. in Cole Hall Auditorium on the Parnasssus campus.

Bigby played a key role in implementing Massachusetts health reform law that supports universal health insurance to residents in that state. She has successfully led many aspects of Massachusetts's pioneering initiatives that now covers 97 percent of the state's residents. More than 400,000 of them are newly insured. Massachusetts now boasts the lowest rate on uninsured people in the United States.

Bigby will describe the Massachusetts health care reform law and its impact on health care coverage, access to care and costs. She will also explain the next steps Massachusetts is taking to improve the health care system and contain health care costs.

Imediately prior to her appointment as Secretary of Health and Human Services in Massachusetts,  Bigby was the medical director of Community Health Programs at Brigham & Women's Hospital. She was also an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the director of the Harvard Medical School Center of Excellence in Women’s Health, where she focused on the health care of low-income and minority women, including breast and cervical cancer and infant mortality.

Bigby has spent her career addressing health care disparities and the needs of disadvantaged and vulnerable populations. She has published a number of studies and participated in conferences and forums across the country related to these issues. She also edited a book about how health issues present themselves in different racial-ethnic-cultural populations. Bigby is nationally recognized for her pioneering work in substance abuse education for primary care physicians.

Bigby served on the Public Health Commission for the City of Boston from 1996 until her appointment as secretary. She also served on numerous boards including Teen Voices and the Medical Foundation. She was a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Assuring the Health of the Public in the 21st Century Committee and the Minority Women’s Health Panel of Experts for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health. Dr. Bigby served on the Council of Graduate Medical Education from 1994-1999. Additionally, she was president of the Society of General Internal Medicine from 2003-2004.

Bigby holds a BA degree from Wellesley College and an MD degree from Harvard Medical School.