Faculty Profile
Robert A. Hiatt, MD, PhD
Department Chair (Joint with Neil Risch)
Professor in Residence, Division of Cancer Epidemiology
Director of Population Sciences and Deputy Director, UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center
UCSF Box 0560
185 Berry Street, Lobby 4, Suite 5700
San Francisco, CA 94107-1762
Dr. Robert A. Hiatt is the Director of Population Science and Deputy Director of the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is a Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at UCSF and also a Senior Scientist for the national Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in Oakland.
From 1998 to early 2003 he was the Deputy Director of the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), where he oversaw cancer research in epidemiology and genetics, surveillance, and health services research. Before that he was the Director of Prevention Sciences at the Northern California Cancer Center and also Assistant Director for Epidemiology at the Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in Northern California.
He was trained in medicine at the University of Michigan and in epidemiology at the University of California at Berkeley. He is Board Certified in Preventive Medicine and, until taking his NCI position practiced general internal medicine. After an early career in international health and tropical disease research, his research interests have included cancer epidemiology, especially breast cancer, cancer prevention and screening. He is a past president of the American College of Epidemiology and the American Society for Preventive Oncology.
His central focus at UCSF will be building a strong, interdisciplinary program in cancer population sciences that will include epidemiology and genetics, behavior and health services research, surveillance, and survivorship research. He is PI of the Bay Area Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Center that is studying the influence of environmental factors on pubertal maturation.
Principal Research Interests
After an early career in international health, in which I was interested in the impact of parasitic diseases on community health, I have been primarily focused on cancer epidemiology and studies of cancer screening both in terms of efficacy and effectiveness in diverse community settings. In my most recent position I have taken a broad national perspective on the agenda for cancer prevention and control research initiating programs in large-scale studies of gene-environment interactions in epidemiology, centers for the study of population health and health disparities, and studies of the quality of cancer care.
Selected University & Public Service
- UCSF Medical Staff Cancer Committee
- UCSF Global and Population Health Sciences program, Steering Committee
- President, American Society for Preventive Oncology 2003-2005