Kate Lorig

Dr. Kate Lorig, Dr.P.H., is an American professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She is also the director of the Stanford Patient Education Research Center. She is known for her work on chronic disease and patient education, has published several books and peer-reviewed journal articles in those fields, and developed a peer-led self-management course for patients with chronic diseases. Lorig is herself a chronic disease patient, having been diagnosed with Gaucher's disease at the age of three.[1]

Lorig received her B.S. in nursing at Boston University in 1964, her M.S. in nursing at the University of California, San Francisco in 1968, and her Dr.P.H. in health education at the University of California, Berkeley in 1980. Lorig joined Stanford Medical School in 1978 as a research associate, becoming a professor in 1995. She has been a professor at the UCSF School of Nursing since 1985, and was a lecturer at San Jose State University, Department of Health Sciences, from 1980 – 1989.[2]

Kaiser Permanente adopted the Chronic Disease Self Management (CDSM) course in 1997.[3] In 2001, the CDSM and Lorig's arthritis specific self-management courses were included in the United Kingdom National Health Service's Expert Patient Programme, on a trial basis. The program, and Lorig's courses, were adopted into the mainstream of the NHS beginning in 2004.[1] In 2007, Dr. Lorig worked with the VA Desert Pacific Health Care Network/Department of Veteran Affairs to develop a pilot online self-management model for family caregivers based on her previous work.

Lorig is a member of the Network of Innovators of the World Health Organization's Observatory on Health Care for Chronic Conditions.[4] She received the Molly Mettler Award from the National Council on Aging's Health Promotion Institute in 2003.[5]