David S. Sobel, MD, MPH is Director of Patient Education and Health Promotion for The Permanente Medical Group and Kaiser Permanente Northern California which serves over 3 million members. He practices adult primary care medicine at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Offices in San Jose. He was also the physician lead for the national initiative in Patient-Centered Care for the Care Management Institute of Kaiser Permanente.
Dr. Sobel completed a Bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of Michigan. He then received his medical training at the University of California San Francisco with a medical internship at Presbyterian Hospital-Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. He also completed a Masters degree in Public Health and a residency program in General Preventive Medicine at the School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley.
His research and teaching interests include medical self-care, patient education, preventive medicine, behavioral medicine and psychosocial factors in health. He is author of An Everyday Guide To Your Health, editor of Ways of Health: Holistic Approaches to Ancient and Contemporary Medicine, and coauthor of The People's Book of Medical Tests, Living a Healthy Life with Chronic Conditions, The Healing Brain, Healthy Pleasures and The Healthy Mind, Healthy Body Handbook.
Dr. Sobel’s more than 200 television appearances to educate the public about health issues include the Today Show, CNN, Hour Magazine, and a regular television news segment on KNTV, the ABC affiliate station in San Jose. His health education work in television and video has earned him awards from the American Heart Association and the American Film Festival. He also served as an invited delegate to the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) Congress that generated the Ottawa Charter on Health Promotion. He is the 2001 recipient of the national Healthtrac Foundation Health Education Award given to a health educator who has made a substantial contribution to advancing the field of health education or health promotion through research, program development, or program delivery. He is project director for two programs that won the Kaiser Permanente James A Vohs Award for Quality: Chronic Disease Self-Management Program Multi-Region winner in 2002 and The Self-Care/Healthwise Handbook Program runner-up in 1997. He is also a recipient of The Permanente Medical Group, Inc. Exceptional Contribution Award for 2005 for creating, developing and disseminating health education programs that support KP members throughout the continuum of care.
The Center for Advancing Health works to increase people's engagement in their health care.
All Americans act to fully benefit from their health care.
Work with policy makers, clinicians, and communities to more effectively support people's engagement in their health care.
Produce and disseminate research news stories that people can use to inform decisions about their health and health care.
Offer Be a Prepared Patient resources to help people find good health care and make the most of it.
Since it was founded in 1992, the Center for Advancing Health has aimed to increase people's engagement in their health and health care.
While advances in medical knowledge have been responsible for steady increases in the length and quality of life of Americans, the potential of health care to improve individual and population health in the future rests increasingly in the hands of individuals. Whether we are sick or well, we will not benefit from the expertise of health professionals and the technologies they deploy unless we participate actively and knowledgably in our own care. More