Joy Melnikow, MD, MPH - Family Medicine

Dr. Joy Melnikow reviews medical content for Healthwise, a nonprofit organization with a mission to help people make better health decisions. Dr. Melnikow is a professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of California Davis in Sacramento. Her teaching focuses on problem-based learning, evidence-based medicine, and maternal child health, as well as obstetrics and inpatient attending. In addition to teaching, Dr. Melnikow supervises residents and research fellows, mentors junior faculty, and provides direct outpatient and obstetric care. She also obtains grant funding and conducts research projects for the Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care and the UCDMC Cancer Center.

Dr. Melnikow's research interests include women's health, patient preferences and decision-making, preventive services, cancer prevention and early detection, and underserved populations and cost-effectiveness analysis in women's health care.

She has served as an associate medical director for Healthwise since 1998.

American Board of Family Practice—1987, 1993, 1999, 2005

Dr. Melnikow serves as primary medical reviewer for women's health-related topics, such as Abnormal Pap Test, Breast-Feeding, Menopause, topics on sexually transmitted diseases, and a variety of medical test topics related to women's health.

MPH in Epidemiology: University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, 1983

M.D.: University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, San Francisco, 1984

Residency: Family Medicine, University of Massachusetts, 1984–1987

Professor, Dept. of Family and Community Medicine, University of California, Davis, Sacramento, 2002–present

Associate Professor, Dept. of Family and Community Medicine, University of California, Davis, Sacramento, 1998–2002

Assistant Professor, Dept. of Family Medicine, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, 1992–1998

Faculty Physician/Research Director, MetroHealth Medical Center, Dept. of Family Practice, Cleveland, 1988–1992

Fort Defiance Indian Hospital, Fort Defiance, AZ, 1987–1988

MetroHealth Medical Center, Cleveland, 1988–1992

University of California, Davis, Medical Center, 1992–present

American Academy of Family Physicians

American Public Health Association

California Academy of Family Physicians

North American Primary Care Research Group

Society for Medical Decision-Making

Society of Teachers of Family Medicine

1. Melnikow J, Kuenneth C, Helms LJ, Barnato A, Kuppermann M, Birch S, Nuovo J (2006). Chemoprevention: Drug pricing and mortality: The case of tamoxifen. Cancer, 107(5): 950–958.
2. Kulasingam SL, Myers ER, Lawson HW, McConnell KJ, Kerlikowske K, Melnikow J, Washington AE, Sawaya GF (2006). Cost-effectiveness of extending cervical cancer screening intervals among women with prior normal pap tests. Obstetrics and Gynecology, 107(2 Pt 1): 321–328.
3. Sawaya GF, McConnell J, Kulasingam SL, Lawson HW, Kerlikowske K, Melnikow J, et al. (2003). Risk of cervical dysplasia and cancer associated with extending the interval between cervical-cancer screenings. New England Journal of Medicine, 349(16): 1501–1509.
4. Melnikow J, et al. (2003). Management of low-grade abnormal Pap smear: What are women's preferences? Journal of Family Practice, 51(10): 849–855.
5. Nuovo J, Melnikow J, Chang D (2002). Reporting number needed to treat and absolute risk reduction in randomized controlled trials. JAMA 282(21): 2813–2814.

This reviewer reported no financial conflicts.