David Kent

Background

About David Kent

I am Founder and Director of the Tufts Predictive Analytics and Comparative Effectiveness (PACE) Center, at the Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies (ICRHPS), Tufts Medical Center; Director of the Clinical and Translational Science (CTS) MS/PhD Program, at the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Tufts University; and Professor of Medicine, Neurology, and CTS at Tufts Medical Center/Tufts University School of Medicine. I work clinically as a hospitalist at Tufts Medical Center. I am a clinician-methodologist with a broad background in clinical epidemiology, and a focus on advanced methods of predictive analytics. I have been continually funded as Principal Investigator (PI) by both the NIH, since 2003, and PCORI, since their first round of research grants in 2012. I have received approximately $35 million from these agencies, both for work addressing fundamental analytic issues, focused on prediction and personalized medicine, and for applied work in cardiovascular disease, particularly stroke. I am most known for developing frameworks for understanding heterogeneous treatment effects and for work on a particular form of stroke (PFO-associated stroke) which has changed practice guidelines worldwide. Current research projects also focus on silent brain infarction and risk of subsequent stroke and dementia using natural language processing and real-world data. I have over 250 articles in peer reviewed journals, including more than 20 in the top 5 general medical journals (NEJM, JAMA, Lancet, BMJ, Annals of Internal Medicine). I have served on numerous boards, including the Scientific Advisory Board at Optum Labs for 7 years, Steering and Advisory Committees, DSMBs, and Study Sections for Foundations and the NIH, including for Biomedical Computing and Health Informatics (BCHI) and for the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke. I have delivered over 100 invited lectures and keynotes. Finally, a substantial portion of my time is spent educating the next generation of clinical and translational scientists. I have been Director of the MS/PhD Program in Clinical and Translational Science at Tufts University School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences for over a decade—where I teach Study Design, Prediction Modeling and Real-World Evidence—and have been PI / Director of multiple institutional T- and K-Awards and have personally mentored over 60 researchers, including junior faculty, fellows and students. Many of these mentees have gone on to leadership positions in academia, industry and government.