John Brownstein, PhD
| Department | Emergency Medicine, Informatics |
 |
| Hospital Title | Research Faculty | |
| Academic Title | Associate Professor | |
| Phone | 617-355-6998 | |
| Fax | 617-730-0267 | |
| John Brownstein | ||
| Location |
300 Longwood Avenue Boston MA 02115 |
Research Overview
Dr. Brownstein works on novel statistical modeling and medical informatics approaches for accelerating the translation of public health surveillance research into practice. The research plans of his group are focus on the development of methods and applications in public health informatics which focus on two major areas: (1) the design, evaluation and implementation of public health surveillance systems and (2) statistical modeling of public health surveillance data to improve prevention and control activities. This research has involved a variety of infectious diseases including malaria, dengue, HIV, West Nile virus, Lyme disease, RSV and influenza. His group is also leading the development several novel disease surveillance systems, including HealthMap.org, an internet-based global infectious disease intelligence system.
Goals of Dr. Brownstein's work include:
- Public Health Surveillance Systems: Dr. Brownstein and his colleagues work on the development of advanced, informatics-based, real-time surveillance systems that monitor population health from a variety of health information sources ranging from formal clinical data to informal rumor-based surveillance.
- Infectious Disease Modeling: Their research focuses on the epidemiology of a number of infectious diseases including malaria, dengue, HIV, West Nile virus, Lyme disease, RSV and influenza. Planned research included predicting patterns of influenza epidemics and pandemics, with specific interests in the efficacy of disease control strategies including vaccination, quarantine and travel restrictions.
- Novel Applications of Surveillance: Dr. Brownstein and colleagues also investigate novel surveillance methods for post-marketing surveillance of therapeutics. They are currently investigating the feasibility of using infectious disease surveillance as a framework for monitoring adverse drug events and prescription opioid abuse.
About John Browstein
Dr. Brownstein was trained as an epidemiologist in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale University where he received his PhD. He completed his postdoctoral training at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He currently holds research grants from the National Institutes of Health, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Google.org.
Dr. Brownstein has advised the Institute of Medicine, the US Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Defense and the White House on real-time public health surveillance. His research has been reported on widely including pieces in Science, Nature, New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, National Public Radio and the BBC.
Key Publications
- Brownstein JS, Sordo M, Kohane IS, Mandl KD. The tell-tale heart: population-based surveillance reveals an association of rofecoxib and celecoxib with myocardial infarction. PLoS ONE. 2007 Sep 5;2(9):e840
- Brownstein J.S., Wolfe, C. J., Mandl K.D. 2006 Empirical Evidence for the Effect of Air Travel on Inter-Regional Influenza Spread in the United States. Plos Medicine. Oct 1st; 3(10).
- Brownstein, J.S., Kleinman, K.P, Mandl, K.D. 2005. Identifying pediatric age groups for influenza vaccination using a regional surveillance system. American Journal of Epidemiology. 162(7):686-93.
- Brownstein, J.S., Holford, T.R., Fish, D., 2004 Enhancing West Nile Virus surveillance, United States. Emerging Infectious Diseases: 10(6). 1129-1133.
