David Gustafson PhD
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Director of the Network for the Improvement of Addiction Treatment
As the National Program Office Director, Dr. David Gustafson, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, provides overall leadership to the Network for the Improvement of Addiction Treatment (NIATx) initiative. He is also Director of Wisconsin’s Center of Excellence in Cancer Communications Research, funded by the National Cancer Institute. He joined the faculty of the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1966. He founded the Center for Health Systems Research and Analysis (CHSRA), a multidisciplinary research center located on the UW campus. Through his work at CHSRA, best known for its research on improving health care quality, Dr. Gustafson has merged his interests in decision theory, behavioral change, and organizational improvement. Over the last ten years, Dr. Gustafson’s work has focused on the Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System (CHESS), an Internet-based information and support system to help people coping with lung, breast, and prostate cancer; severe asthma; substance abuse; and sexual assault. Dr. Gustafson helped found the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and is a Fellow and past member of its board. He has helped numerous organizations, including the British National Health Service, improve the processes they use to deliver care. Dr. Gustafson is a Fellow of the Association for Health Services Research; a Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association; chair of the eHealth Institute’s Board of Directors; and is a past chair of the Federal Science Panel on Interactive Communications in Health.