Michael J. Yedidia, PhD

Michael J. Yedidia (Ph.D., Brandeis University; M.P.H., Yale University) is a Research Professor and Senior Medical Sociologist at the Center for State Health Policy. His research focuses on health professions education, prevention of childhood obesity, population health, access to care, patient perspectives on health and illness, and quality improvement. He currently leads an NIH-funded study of the determinants of childhood obesity, following a panel of low-income children in four cities over five years and assessing the impact of aspects of the food and physical activity environment on weight status. He also directs a project providing support for promoting a culture of health to 20 community coalitions in New Jersey. He has conducted numerous evaluation studies of health professions education programs including two multi-site, controlled evaluations of curricular interventions, one in undergraduate medical education (teaching communications competencies at three medical schools) and the other in graduate medical and nursing education. He was also national program director for Evaluating Innovations in Nursing Education, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s national initiative to support evaluation of interventions addressing the nurse faculty shortage. Prior to joining the faculty at Rutgers, Dr. Yedidia was a senior health services researcher at NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and taught medical sociology, health policy, and research methods at the Department of Sociology and the Medical Education Program at Brown University.