Christopher M. Worsham

Dr. Worsham is a physician-epidemiologist who combines clinical practice in critical care with formal training in epidemiology. His research applies epidemiologic and econometric methods, including natural experiments and quasi-experimental designs, to investigate causal relationships in national data from claims, electronic health records, registries, and other sources covering millions of patients. Trained in internal medicine, critical care, and pulmonology, he treats adults across a broad spectrum of acute illness. This clinical experience with medications, medical devices, diagnostic tools, and physician decision making informs his research and interpretation of scientific evidence. At Harvard Medical School, he teaches clinical epidemiology and population health and supervises trainees in epidemiologic study design and analysis. Dr. Worsham’s published research covers a broad range of topics, including medication and vaccine use; infectious diseases; surgical care, organ donation, and transplantation; physician behavior, the health care workforce, resource utilization, and health care policy; and environmental and firearm-related health risks. Supported by a career development award from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and federal grants on opioid prescribing, this work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals, such as The New England Journal of Medicine, The BMJ, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He is also a peer reviewer for epidemiology and medical journals. For general audiences, he coauthored Random Acts of Medicine, a book exploring natural experiments in health care; has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other national publications; and lectures across the US on the use of data and technology in medicine. A fellow of the American Thoracic Society, he represents the society at the American Medical Association House of Delegates.