Robert Like
Robert C. Like, MD, MS is an Emeritus Professor and was the Founding Director of the Center for Healthy Families and Cultural Diversity, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He is a board-certified family physician with a background in medical anthropology and is nationally known for his work in the areas of cultural competence, equity in health and health care, and health professions education. Dr. Like has been actively involved for more than 35 years in presenting predoctoral, residency, and continuing medical education programs relating to the delivery of culturally responsive and effective, patient-centered care to diverse populations.
BIOSKETCH
Robert C. Like, MD, MS is an Emeritus Professor and the Founding Director of the Center for Healthy Families and Cultural Diversity,CHFCD Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Dr. Like received his MD degree from Harvard Medical School in 1979 and completed his residency and MS degree fellowship training in family medicine from Case Western Reserve University in 1984. He is a board-certified family physician with a background in medical anthropology who has carried out fieldwork in the Azores Islands, Portugal; Beersheva, Israel; Zuni, New Mexico; and the Kingdom of Tonga in Western Polynesia.
Dr. Like has served as a member of the DHHS Office of Minority Health's CLAS Standards National Project Advisory Committee, the OMH Regional Health Equity Council for Region II, and American Hospital Association's Equity of Care National Advisory Committee; co-chair of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine's Group on Multicultural Health Care and Education; Medical Society of New Jersey representative to the AMA/NMA/NHMA Commission to End Health Care Disparities, and on numerous national expert panels, committees, and task forces. He is also a W. Montague Cobb/National Medical Association (NMA) Health Institute Senior Fellow, and currently serves as Chair of the New Jersey Statewide Network for Cultural Competence NJSNCC, Co-Chair of the MSNJ JEDI Task Force MSNJ JEDI, and as a member of the Community Health Law Project's Board of Trustees.
Dr. Like was the principal investigator of an Aetna Foundation-funded study entitled, "Assessing the Impact of Cultural Competency Training Using Participatory Quality Improvement Methods.” Aetna He was also a co-principal investigator of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded service demonstration project entitled, "The Provision of Primary Health Care to Adults with Chronic Disabilities." He previously served as director of the HRSA-funded NRSA Primary Care Health Services Research Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. NRSA He has also consulted to the European Union's Migrant-Friendly Hospitals initiative and was a member of the WHO Health Promoting Hospital’s Task Force on Migrant Friendly Culturally Competent Health Care.
Dr. Like is nationally known for his work in the areas of cultural competency, equity in health and health care, and health professions education. He has published extensively and given numerous invited presentations around the US and globally. He previously served as the Director of the Patient Centered Medicine 1 course at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and Director of the Family Health/MPH Track in the New Jersey Graduate Program in Public Health. He is a member of the Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences Stuart D. Cook, M.D. Master Educators’ Guild, and the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Academy of Medical Educators Institute for Excellence in Education.
Dr. Like has received a variety of awards including the 2004 Distinguished Service in the Health Field Award from the National Association of Medical Minority Educators, the 2004 and 2007 Pfizer-American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation Visiting Professorships in Family Medicine, the 2020 Clement A. Price Human Dignity Award from Rutgers University, the 2021 Adam Solomon Award from the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, and the 2023 Medical Society of New Jersey Lifetime Achievement Award.
Dr. Like has been actively involved for more than 35 years in presenting UME, GME, and CME programs relating to the delivery of culturally responsive and effective, patient-centered care to diverse populations.