Brian Strom, M.D., M.P.H.
- George S. Pepper Professor of Public Health and Preventive Medicine
- Professor of Medicine
- Professor of Pharmacology
- Chair, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology
- Director, Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics
- Director and Chair, Graduate Group in Epidemiology and Biostatistics
- Associate Vice President for Strategic Integration, University of Pennsylvania Health System
Dr. Strom earned a B.S. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University in 1971, and then an M.D. degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1975. From 1975-1978 he was an intern and resident in Internal Medicine and from 1978-1980 he was an NIH fellow in Clinical Pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco. He simultaneously earned an M.P.H. Degree in Epidemiology at the University of California, Berkeley. He has been on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine since 1980. The Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics he has created at Penn includes over 400 individuals supported by $30 million/year of extramural funds. Over the years, 300 clinicians have been trained or are in training in clinical research at the CCEB. All but approximately 25 have appointments in academic or other research institutions. In the process, he has been a leader in the rigorous formal training of clinical researchers.
Dr. Strom’s major research interest is in the field of pharmacoepidemiology, i.e., the application of epidemiologic methods to the study of drug use and effects. Author and editor of the field’s major text (now going into its fourth edition), Dr. Strom was President of the International Society of Pharmacoepidemiology. In addition to writing over 350 papers, he has been principal investigator of over 175 grants, including over $52 million in direct costs alone, and has contributed to many more. Recent grants include an NCI Program Project Grant on Molecular Susceptibility to Hormone-Induced Cancers, awards from the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality for a Center for Research and Education in Therapeutics (CERTs), and a Center of Excellence for Patient Safety Research and Practice. He has been invited to give over 275 talks outside his local area, including being the keynote speaker for multiple international meetings. Dr. Strom has been a consultant to NIH, FDA, CDC, USP, AAMC, JCAHO, foreign governments, most major pharmaceutical manufacturers, and many law firms.
Dr. Strom was a member of the Board of Regents of the American College of Physicians, the Board of Directors of the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and the Board of Directors for the American College of Epidemiology. He is also Editor for the Americas for Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety, the official journal of the International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology and the International Society of Pharmacovigilance. Dr. Strom was on the Drug Utilization Review Committee and is on the Gerontology Committee of the United States Pharmacopoeia. He now serves on the Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Strom was Chair of the Institute of Medicine’s Committee to Assess the Safety and Efficacy of the Anthrax Vaccine, and was a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Committee to Review the CDC Anthrax Vaccine Safety and Efficacy Research Program. In 2002 he was appointed Committee Chair of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Smallpox Vaccine Program Implementation.
Dr. Strom is a member of the American Epidemiology Society, and is one of a handful of clinical epidemiologists ever elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation and American Association of Physician. He is also an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Strom received the 2003 Rawls-Palmer Progress in Medicine Award from the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, and in November 2002 was appointed to the George S. Pepper Professorship of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, also at the University of Pennsylvania. Other awards that Dr. Strom has received include: the Class of 1992 Class Teaching Award at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine; the Naomi M. Kanof Clinical Investigator Award, of the Society for Investigative Dermatology; the Samuel Martin Health Evaluation Sciences Research Award; and the Mary F. Lindbach Award for Distinguished Teaching.