David Dowdy

DAVID DOWDY is the inaugural B. Frank and Kathleen Polk Associate Professor in Epidemiology. He is a homegrown talent, having received his MD, PhD and ScM at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Dowdy is a board-certified general internist whose work merges his expertise in classic epidemiology, economic evaluation, infectious disease modeling and translation of science into policy. His research is defined by both breadth and depth. Broadly, he has worked on “translational epidemiology’ projects in a variety of clinical fields-from HIV screening to long-term outcomes in ICU survivors to scheduling practices in general medicine clinics-with the aim of translating epidemiological data into evidence based decisions. His research depth is in modeling the impact and cost-effectiveness of diagnostic interventions for tuberculosis (TB), a field in which he is an emerging leader. In this capacity, Dr. Dowdy develops mathematical models that project the future impact and cost-effectiveness of different diagnostic tests for TB, allowing national decision makers to choose the testing strategies that are right for their local conditions. In the past year, his modeling and economic work has been published in The Lancet, PLoS Medicine and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Dowdy has advised the World Health Organization in crafting policy recommendations related to TB diagnostics, and he was named to the eight-member steering committee of the TB Modeling and Analysis Consortium, sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He also serves as the director of the modeling core for the National Institutes of Health-funded TB Clinical Diagnostics Research Consortium. Dr. Dowdy has authored or co-authored over 35 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals.