IN MEMORIAM

IN MEMORIAM

William Shonick

Professor of Health Services, Emeritus

 Los Angeles

1919–2003

William Shonick, professor emeritus in the Department of Health Services, UCLA School of Public Health, died in Santa Cruz on October 28, 2003 at the age of 84 after a long illness.

In 1967, he earned his Ph.D. from the UCLA School of Public Health in biostatistics, with a minor area of concentration in medical care organization. After a year’s work at the University of Southern California as coordinator of research and clinical assistant professor of biostatistics in the Department of Community Medicine, Dr. Shonick returned to UCLA as assistant professor in the Divisions of Biostatistics and Health Administration. He rose to associate professor in 1974 and to full professor in 1980, serving as director of the Program on Health Planning and Policy Analysis from 1979 to 1983 and as head of the Division of Health Services from 1981 to 1983.

Dr. Shonick was revered as a superlative teacher of both biostatistics and health services. Among his teaching responsibilities were introductory courses in biostatistics and three seminal courses in health services: Health Insurance Principles and Programs, Small Area Planning for Resources for Personal Health Services, and Government Health Services and Trends. Dr. Shonick’s classes were extremely popular. He was known as one of the best teachers in the School. In 1980, a graduate student wrote:

“It is common knowledge among students that one should take as many courses as possible from Dr. Shonick. One will never work harder… and never learn more!”

Dr. Shonick’s research spanned the fields of economics, political science, and health services. His strong background in mathematics, statistics, economics, and public health enabled him to analyze complex problems in health services and to provide careful documentation and measurement. His 1976 book, Elements of Planning for Area-Wide Personal Health Services, was an exceedingly useful introductory text for students and practitioners of health planning. It succeeded in making lucid the fundamentals of a field of increasing national importance, yet one that was full of confused and pretentious thinking.

Dr. Shonick’s ability as an applied biostatistician is reflected in an article, “Hemophilia B: Characteristics of Genetic Variants and Detection of Carriers,” published in the journal, Blood, in 1977. Dr. Shonick was one of the five authors of this significant statistical study.

His numerous peer-reviewed articles covered a wide range of problems in the organization of health services, including merger of public health departments and hospitals, private management of public hospitals, problems in national and area-wide planning, estimating hospital bed needs, and health maintenance organizations. All his research exhibited a commitment to rigor and statistical analysis that was not common in the field of health services at that time, while still giving preeminence to policy analysis.

The capstone of William Shonick’s career was the publication in 1995 by Oxford University Press of his classic book, Government and Health Services: Government’s Role in the Development of the US Health Services, 1930-1980. In this book, he traces and explains, in the closing words of the book:

“The transition of the nation’s public policy on health…from an almost single-track emphasis on laissez-faire to one that encompasses the capitalist social welfare state and emphasizes strengthening the weak points of the unfettered entrepreneurial society, with its tendency toward runaway competition, while often forgetting the side effects of turning up the power of its productive engines too high and too fast for human or ecological tolerances.”

Dr. Shonick contributed generously to university, scholarly, and community service. A most creative contribution was his role in launching a campus organization at UCLA, Concerned Faculty, which functioned for many years to express opposition to the Vietnam War and to provide a faculty voice for support of civil rights and social welfare programs.

William Shonick was a brilliant analyst and champion of the public sector in health care. In 1980, Milton I. Roemer, MD, MPH wrote that in his nationwide studies of public health agencies and public hospitals Dr. Shonick:

“…has shown with profound insight the relationship of these important health care resources to the larger socio-economic aspects of American urban development…Bill Shonick’s studies shed greater light on the problems of public sector health care than any other work in the United States.”

William Shonick used his extraordinary technical knowledge, his powerful analytical skills, and his sterling principles to uphold and strengthen the public sector in US health services.

Ronald Andersen

Lester Breslow

Ruth Roemer