From June 2013 to February 2014, Nesbitt served as Interim Vice Chancellor for Human Health Sciences and Dean of the School of Medicine at UC Davis, then again from spring 2017 until summer 2018.
Throughout his career, Nesbitt's scholarship and leadership have centered on resolving spatial health inequalities, increasing access to health care, and growing the healthcare workforce for California, the United States, and the globe.
He is well-known and respected across the world for pioneering the use of telecommunications technology to offer a wide range of healthcare services and health professional education in remote regions.
In 1992, he developed the first telehealth link at UC Davis, and today, the UC Davis Center for Health and Technology is a global pioneer in combining telehealth and distance learning to fulfill the needs of communities in distant and disadvantaged areas.
Nesbitt led a team that successfully applied for more than $22 million in funding from the Federal Communications Commission to establish the California Telehealth Network, which is connecting more than 800 sites in a digital health highway at the request of the California governor and the UC Office of the President.
The project is on track to become one of the country's largest broadband networks dedicated to health care. UC Davis has received approximately $100 million in funding from a variety of sources to enhance telehealth infrastructure, services, teaching, and research under Nesbitt's direction.
UC Davis' PRIME programs, which educate physicians to work in rural and disadvantaged urban regions, were developed by Nesbitt. Nesbitt, a well-liked professor, and mentor is committed to providing outstanding education to students at the undergraduate and graduate professional levels.
He was a key figure in the founding of UC Davis' Center for Virtual Care, a regional training resource for students and working professionals, and he now oversees the university's nationally known Continuing Medical Education programs.
Nesbitt co-founded the UC Davis Cancer Care Network with leaders from the National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, bringing advanced cancer care and cutting-edge clinical research to Northern California's rural communities, as well as a robust telehealth program that connects patients with UC Davis clinical expertise in dozens of hospitals, clinics, and even farm labor camps.
His study has resulted in significant extramural funding and significant scientific achievements. On the application of telecommunications technology in health care and education, he has published or co-authored more than 60 journal papers, abstracts, and book chapters.
Nesbitt was the inaugural Chief Scientist for Health at the Center for Information Research in the Interest of Society, a collaboration between the UC Davis, Berkeley, Santa Cruz, and Merced campuses. For his ingenuity and leadership, Nesbitt has earned several honors.
He won the American Hospital Association's 2012 Justin Ford Kimball Innovators Award for exceptional contributions to health care, as well as the American Telemedicine Association's 2010 Leadership Award for his pioneering efforts to improve telemedicine.
Nesbitt earned his bachelor's and medical degrees from the University of California, Davis, and completed his residency training at the Spokane Family Medicine Residency Program, which is an affiliate of the University of Washington School of Medicine. He also holds a master's degree in public health from the University of Washington.
Before joining the UC Davis faculty in 1988, he worked as a primary care physician in the rural Northwest. As an emeritus faculty member, Nesbitt continues to assist the institution by heading the Healthy Aging in a Digital World Big Idea and providing knowledge in his research interests.
