Kate Lorig Bio

Kate Lorig, DrPH

Professor Emerita at Stanford University School of Medicine

Director of Stanford Patient Education Research Center

Kate Lorig DrPH is Professor Emerita at Stanford University School of Medicine and director of the Stanford Patient Education Research Center.  For the past 35 years she has been developing, evaluating and making available to the public self management programs for people with chronic conditions, cancer survivors and caregivers.  She earned her bachelors degree in nursing at Boston University, and her masters and doctorate of public health (Dr.P.H.) in health education at the University of California, Berkeley. She came to Stanford in 1979 while a graduate student at Cal to develop and research an educational program that emphasized self-help skills for people with arthritis. This program became the Arthritis Self-Help Course and was the prototype for the Chronic Disease Self-Management Program, The Diabetes Self-Management Program, the Positive Self-Management Program for HIV/AIDS, the Cancer: Thriving and Surviving Program, the Building Better Caregiver's Program, and others. She has authored several books and many articles about arthritis, chronic disease in general, health education and behavioral science. She travels extensively at the invitation of organizations concerned with patient care and academic research. To find out more about the center, publications and programs go to patienteducation.stanford.edu