Lesley H. Curtis

Lesley H. Curtis is Professor in the Departments of Population Health Sciences and Medicine in the Duke School of Medicine and was inaugural chair of the Department of Population Health Sciences. A health services researcher by training, Dr. Curtis is an expert in the use of health care and Medicare claims data for health services and clinical outcomes research, and a leader in national data quality efforts. Dr. Curtis has led the linkage of Medicare claims with several large clinical registries and epidemiological cohort studies including the Framingham Heart Study and the Cardiovascular Health Study. Dr. Curtis currently serves as a senior policy advisor at the Food and Drug Administration supporting the Agency’s evidence generation initiative, and is co-PI of the NIH Pragmatic Trials Collaboratory, an NIH initiative to strengthen the national capacity for large-scale research studies embedded in health care delivery. A health services researcher by training, Lesley is an expert in the use of real world health care data for health services and clinical outcomes research, and a leader in national data quality efforts. As chair and professor of Population Health Sciences, Lesley is deeply committed to enhancing diversity, improving health equity, and teaching the next generation of population health scientists. Currently, Lesley teaches research design and study methods in population health sciences. Her current efforts focus on working with health systems and patient networks to made evidence generation more robust and sustainable. Prof Lesley H. Curtis is Professor and Chair of the Department of Population Health Sciences in the Duke School of Medicine. A health services researcher by training, she is an expert in the use of healthcare data for health services and clinical outcomes research. She serves as co-PI of the FDA’s Sentinel Innovation Centre and Co-Investigator of the Data Core for the FDA’s Sentinel Initiative to monitor the safety of FDA-regulated medical products. Additionally, Prof Curtis serves as co-Investigator of the coordinating centre for PCORI’s National Clinical Research Network (PCORnet), working with health systems and patient networks to develop a harmonised network infrastructure that leverages health systems and electronic health record data for robust observational and interventional research. She is the co-PI of the NIH Health Care Systems Collaboratory, an NIH Common Fund initiative to strengthen the national capacity for large-scale research studies embedded in health care delivery. Prof Curtis received her B.A. in Economics at Washington University, as well as her M.S. in Public Policy Analysis and Ph.D. in Health Services Research and Policy from the University of Rochester.