Randall Stafford

Randall S. Stafford, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Medicine Stanford Prevention Research Center; Director of the Program on Prevention Outcomes and Practices, Stanford University School of Medicine

Research Description: Through his record of community-based research, Dr. Stafford has made important contributions to the science of disease prevention and health promotion. With training in both Epidemiology and Primary Care Internal Medicine, his research advances scientific understanding of physician practices and patient behaviors to improve chronic disease health outcomes and reduce health disparities. Dr. Stafford and his research team focus on investigating physician and patient practices in order to create effective healthcare models that emphasize prevention and wellness, rather than treatment of disease symptoms. His mission is to improve population health outcomes through research that facilitates the development and broad dissemination of effective, efficient, innovative, and evidence- based prevention strategies. Examples of these innovations include team-based care, patient self- management, health policy strategies, the use of mobile health technology, and online physician retraining. In addition, Dr. Stafford seeks to develop future leaders in prevention research and to broadly communicate the critical value of a population health perspective. Dr. Stafford has been principal investigator on many research investigations that test strategies to diminish the burden of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease while reducing health disparities and decreasing health care costs.

Selected relevant publications (Stanford DRC Members in BOLD):

  1. Rosas LG, Vasquez JJ, Hedlin HK, Qin FF, Lv N, Xiao L, Kendrick A, Atencio D, Stafford RS. Comparing enhanced versus standard Diabetes Prevention Program among indigenous adults in an urban setting: a randomized controlled trial. BMC Public Health. 2020 Jan 30;20(1):139. doi: 10.1186/s12889-020-8250-7. PMID: 32000738; PMCID: PMC6993459. 

  2. Rhee JJ, Han J, Montez-Rath ME, Kim SH, Cullen MR, Stafford RS, Winkelmayer WC, Chertow GM. Antidiabetic medication use in patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease. J Diabetes Complications. 2019 Nov;33(11):107423. doi: 10.1016/j.jdiacomp.2019.107423. PMID: 31537413; PMCID: PMC6823164. 

  3. Colombari Figueroa S, Stafford RS, Heaney CA, Rosas LG. The Effect of a Behavioral Weight-Loss Intervention on Depressive Symptoms Among Latino Immigrants in a Randomized Controlled Trial. J Immigr Minor Health. 2018 Oct;20(5):1182-1189. doi: 10.1007/s10903-017-0663-8. PMID: 29038966; PMCID: PMC6691493. 

  4. Cho ME, Craven TE, Cheung AK, Glasser SP, Rahman M, Soliman EZ, Stafford RS, Johnson KC, Bates JT, Burgner A, Taylor AA, Tamariz L, Tang R, Beddhu S; SPRINT Study Research Group. The association between insulin resistance and atrial fibrillation: A cross-sectional analysis from SPRINT (Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial). J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich). 2017 Nov;19(11):1152-1161. doi: 10.1111/jch.13062. PMID: 28866864.