Dr. Steven Schroeder is Distinguished Professor of Health and Health Care at UCSF, where he also heads UCSF’s Smoking Cessation Leadership Center. In this interview, he discusses academic medicine, the epidemic of substance abuse, his work at the RWJ Foundation (including the “failed study” that helped build the field of palliative care), and his life in healthcare policy and politics. Between 1990 and 2002, Dr. Schroeder was President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. During that time, the Foundation gave out nearly $4 billion in grants, including for new programs in substance abuse prevention and treatment, care at the end of life, and health insurance expansion for children, among others. He has won numerous awards, including six honorary doctoral degrees and the Gustav Leinhard Award from the National Academy of Medicine. Series: "A Life in Medicine: People Shaping Healthcare Today" [Show ID: 34715]