Former U.S. health-care agency executive to give Discovery Park Distinguished Lecture on new paradigm for biomedical research

Robert M. Kaplan  Download Photo

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A leading figure in biomedical research and administration will speak at 10:30 a.m. Monday (Feb. 22) on developing a new era for biomedical research as part of the Discovery Park Distinguished Lecture Series.

Robert M. Kaplan, former chief science officer at the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research (AHRQ), will speak in the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, Room 121. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is titled "Do We Need a New Paradigm for Biomedical Research?"

"Over his years as a leader and administrator in health-care research and behavioral medicine, as well as safety, quality and patient-centered outcomes, Dr. Kaplan has made significant contributions to the conversation on the grand challenge of quality health-care delivery," said Marietta Harrison, deputy director of Discovery Park and interim director of the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering. "This visit to Purdue to discuss the need for a new paradigm in biomedical research will appeal to audiences spanning many disciplines on campus and throughout the community."

Event sponsors include Lilly Endowment and the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering in Purdue's Discovery Park.

Kaplan was a top administrator at the National Institutes of Health, where he served as associate director for behavioral and social sciences and director of the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research from 2011-14. His 18 books and over 500 articles and chapters have been cited more than 28,000 times.

Prior to his leadership roles at AHRQ and NIH, Kaplan was a distinguished professor of health services and medicine at UCLA, where he led the UCLA/RAND CDC Prevention Research Center and the health-services training program. He was chair of the Department of Health Services from 2004-09. From 1997 to 2004 he was professor and chair of the Department of Family and Preventative Medicine at the University of California, San Diego.

Kaplan is former editor-and-chief of Health Psychology and of the Annals of Behavioral Medicine. He also served as president for many organizations including the American Psychological Association Division of Health Psychology, Section J of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (Pacific), the International Society for Quality of Life Research, the Society for Behavioral Medicine, and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research.

Through a $1 million gift to Discovery Park from the Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment, Purdue launched the Discovery Park Distinguished Lecture Series in 2006 to bring prominent speakers to campus. 

Writers: Phillip Fiorini, 765-496-3133, pfiorini@purdue.edu

Paige Pope, 765-494-4719, popep@purdue.edu  

Source: Marietta Harrison, 765-494-1442, harrisom@purdue.edu