Donald Barr is a physician and is Associate Professor of Sociology and Human Biology, and is the founder and director of Stanford’s undergraduate curriculum in health policy. His research has included health policy and health care reform in the former Soviet Union and the effect of the organizational structure of the U.S. medical care delivery system on the quality of primary care. More recently he has begun to study cultural and linguistic barriers to health care access for low-income patients, and factors associated with higher rates of attrition from pre-medical studies among minority students at Stanford and other universities. His book, Introduction to U.S. Health Policy: The Organization, Financing, and Delivery of Health Care in America, was recently published by Pearson Education. In June 2003 Dr. Barr was awarded the Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Award for Distinctive Contribution to Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. This conversation focused on writing for medicine and social science.