Dr. Christopher Scannell (VA/UCLA Scholar) is an internal medicine resident at UCLA. He earned a PhD in Integrative Biology of Disease and an MD from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. He previously served as Co-Director of the Health Care for All Campaign through the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), and as Director of the California Lobby Day campaign, advocating for the creation of a single-payer system in California. With AMSA, Dr. Scannell published a series of articles studying medical student attitudes towards advocacy-based training experiences, health insurance for the uninsured, and the passage of the Affordable Care Act.

Since graduating, Dr. Scannell has taken a job as Clinical Research Lead with Waltham Clinic, a home care company serving older adults. The company focuses on providing both in-person and telemedicine specialty care for patients with functional and cognitive impairments. Dr. Scannell is currently leading a pilot study for the company assessing whether their model of specialty care with an emphasis on behavioral health and physical medicine helps to improve to quality of care in the home while preventing the need for ER visits or hospitalizations. He has also continued his research affiliation with UCLA as an Assistant Project Scientist and is currently pursuing projects examining policies influencing the geographic distribution on the primary care workforce and financial toxicity related to high out-of-pocket medication costs for cancer patients.

Career Interests: Dr. Scannell is interested in pursuing a career in health care policy, with a focus on expansion of health insurance.

Research Interests: Dr. Scannell’s research interests are Medicaid expansion, single payer healthcare systems, and emergency room utilization.