Clinical Assistant Professor
E-mail: sdavis2@wisc.edu
Telephone: (608)265-0906
Office: Room 4311, Law School
Education:
J.D. 2002, University of Wisconsin Law School
M.P.A. 2002, La Follette School of Public Affairs
B.A. 1994, Wesleyan University
Teaching Areas:
Consumer Law
Health Law
Health Law: Patient Advocacy
Recently Taught Courses
768 Clinical Program: Health Advocacy & Patient-Centered Care
940 L&CP: From Patient to Policy: Models of System Level Advocacy
Research Interests:
-Cataloging and interpreting diverse literature on health advocacy;
-Qualitative study of state-level Consumer Assistance Programs under the PPACA; and
-Consumer engagement in quality improvement efforts in health systems
Biography
Sarah Davis is Clinical Assistant Professor of Law and Associate Director of the Center for Patient Partnerships at the University of Wisconsin where she teaches about patient advocacy and health law. Areas of interest include the emerging field of patient advocacy, healthcare teamwork/collaboration, and the responsiveness of the health care system to consumers' experiences.
Ms. Davis also serves as co-director of the JD-MPH dual degree program.
Professor Davis' current research projects include building an e-archive of literature on health advocacy. The Advocacy Archive, launching in summer 2013, will gather all peer-reviewed literature on health advocacy in one place; offer analysis of how advocacy is defined, portrayed, evaluated, and understood in the public domain; support learning, scholarship, policymaking, and field building in the advocacy domain; and highlight research on the efficacy of advocacy.
Along with colleagues at the Center and Yale, she recently completed a year-long qualitative study of state-level Consumer Assistance Programs (CAPs) under the PPACA. CAPs provide critical advocacy and educational resources to consumers on health insurance and access to health care. Study results were published in the Health Affairs special issue on Patient Engagement (February 2013). Ms. Davis also serves as a consultant to health care organizations engaging patients in quality improvement efforts.
Publications include: "Educating for Health Advocacy in Settings of Higher Education" in Patient Advocacy for Health Care Quality: Strategies for Achieving Patient-Centered Care, Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Inc. and "Ten Strategies to Build Partnerships With Patients," Wisconsin Medical Journal.
The Center for Patient Partnerships, an interdisciplinary center of the Schools of Law, Medicine and Public Health, Nursing and Pharmacy, offers experiential patient advocacy education to students from those disciplines and others. The curriculum focuses on health advocacy, patient-centered care, and health systems change, offering a 12-credit certificate in Consumer Health Advocacy. The Center also infuses patients' voices into health systems reform, offering a critical link to health consumers' experiences.
