Diane Rittenhouse, MD, MPH is Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine and the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Rittenhouse’s principal research interest lies at the intersection of social policy and clinical quality with a particular focus on public health and primary care. She has received a Generalist Physician Faculty Scholar award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Dr. Rittenhouse was co-investigator for the National Study of Physician Practices funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She was Principal Investigator for the evaluation of federal efforts to restore, expand and improve primary care services in Greater New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, and for a qualitative study of the implementation of new models of primary care in the safety-net. She has published in peer-reviewed journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association, on topics including innovations in primary care delivery and policies impacting the primary care workforce and delivery system. Dr. Rittenhouse has been invited to speak to members of the U.S. Congress on the role of the primary care in health reform.

In addition, Dr. Rittenhouse has been a leader in Health Systems/Health Policy curriculum development for the UCSF School of Medicine, and has received awards for her teaching and curriculum development work. She is the faculty advisor for the UCSF School of Medicine MD/MPH program. She also serves as the Family Medicine site director for the UCSF Primary Care Research Fellowship.

Dr. Rittenhouse received her MD from the University of California, Davis, and her Masters in Public Health with an emphasis in Health Policy and Management from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to her medical training she worked for both the California Statewide Office of Health Planning and Development and for the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health in Washington, D.C.