Peter E. Sokolove, professor and vice chair for Academic Affairs in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the UC Davis School of Medicine, was selected as a 2012 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow. His one-year term runs from September 2012 through August 2013.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on pressing health and health-care issues facing the country. As the nation's largest philanthropic organization devoted exclusively to health and health care, the foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, measurable and timely change.
Peter Sokolove, M.D.
As a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow, Sokolove joins a select group of eight mid-career health professionals and behavioral and social scientists with an interest in health to take part in and better understand the health-policy process at the federal level. Following a rigorous orientation, fellows accept work placements within a congressional office (House or Senate), a federal agency, or a division in the legislative or executive branch. Fellows actively contribute to the formulation of national health policies and accelerate their careers as leaders in the field. The program also aims to enrich the substance of the health-policy debate at the federal and state levels.
Sokolove specializes in the treatment of critically ill and injured patients and has lectured widely on range of controversial and important topics, from the diagnosis and management of medical and traumatic emergencies to the hazards emergency health-care workers face while delivering care. In collaboration with other faculty in the department, he also has explored the utility of laboratory testing for identifying unsuspected intra-abdominal injuries in pediatric blunt trauma and the efficacy of anticonvulsant agents for the prevention of early post-traumatic seizures in children with blunt head injury.
Sokolove contributed to the UC Davis Health System proposal for the Delivery System Reform Incentive Program, a federal pay-for-performance initiative implemented at California's 21 public hospitals. He also served on the Operations Committee for the UC Center for Health Quality and Innovation, a health program designed to advance innovations across the five University of California academic medical centers. Sokolove has served in various leadership positions within emergency medicine organizations at the state and national levels. He is the immediate past president of the California Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians.
Sokolove received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1991 and completed an internship and residency training at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in 1994. In recognition of his commitment to excellence in academic emergency medicine, he has received many honors and awards. The Emergency Medicine Residents' Association honored him with the Joseph F. Waeckerle Founder's Award in 2009 and the Residency Director of the Year Award in 2005. The American College of Emergency Physicians also awarded him the California Emergency Medical Residents Award in 2008, National Faculty Teaching Award in 2001, California Education Award in 1999, Outstanding Speaker of the Year award in 1998 and Rookie Faculty of the Year award in 1997. He also received the UC Davis School of Medicine Dean's Award for Excellence in Education in 2009.