Richard A. (Rick) Nelesen, Ph.D.

Richard A. (Rick) Nelesen, Ph.D.
Biostatistician
The Institute for Palliative Medicine at San Diego Hospice
4311 Third Avenue
San Diego, CA, USA 92103-1407
Office: 619-278-6263
Main: 619-688-1600
Email:  rnelesen@sdhospice.org

Richard A. (Rick) Nelesen, Ph.D. is the biostatistician for The Institute of Palliative Medicine at San Diego Hospice.  In this role Rick works closely with Dr. Lloyd in the planning and implementation of research.  As part of the IPM faculty he provides training to fellows and staff on research methods.  He also meets with staff to plan studies by defining variables, designing databases, guiding or performing data analysis and participating in the writing of the research papers.

Dr. Nelesen received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychology for the University of Central Florida in 1983 and his Master’s (1987) and Ph.D. (1989) in Psychphysiology from the University of Miami.  He became a National Institute of Heath Research Fellow with the Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine of the University of California, San Diego (USCD).  Upon completion of the fellowship in 1991, he joined the Department of Psychiatry at UCSD where he was active in the research of the autonomic nervous system regulation of cardiodynamics under stress and the relationship to disease.  In January, 2010 Dr. Nelesen retired from UCSD to join SDHIM.  He is Professor Emeritus at UCSD.

While in graduate school and continuing through his career Rick pursued training in statistics and often served in the role of statistical consultant for his laboratory.  He is author or coauthor of over 60 referred papers and book chapters.  He remains an active reviewer for many journals, including Hypertension, High Altitude Medicine, Psychophysiology, and The Journal of Palliative Medicine.