David Bates, M.D., M.Sc., is Chief, Division of General Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Medical Director of Clinical and Quality Analysis for Partner's Healthcare Systems. He is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and chairs the Division of General Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, where he is a practicing general internist. He is also the former medical director of the Brigham and Women's Hospital PHO.

Trained as a clinical epidemiologist, his main interest has been the use of computer systems to improve patient care. He has done extensive work on evaluating the incidence and preventability of adverse drug events, or injuries due to drugs. His group's focus has been on improving the systems by which drugs are given. Brigham and Women's Hospital has developed a computer order entry system which has the potential to substantially reduce the number of preventable drug complications. It also has had a major impact on improving the efficiency of drug use through decision support.

Dr. Bates was also Principal Investigator of a recently completed study on improving efficiency and quality using information systems, focusing largely on the use of ancillary tests. Special research interests include clinical decision-making and affecting physician decision-making, particularly using computerized interventions; quality of care, cost-effectiveness, and medical practice; and outcome assessment.

He has published on the application of information systems to improve the use of ancillary tests, on predictors of bacteremia and evaluation of patients with suspected sepsis and the potential use of novel therapies in this group, and on medication errors and injuries due to drugs, as noted above.

He is the current board chair for the American Medical Informatics Association, and serves as external program lead for research to the World Health Organization's Global Alliance for Patient Safety.  He edits the Journal of Clinical Outcomes Management and is Associate Editor of the Journal of Patient Safety.  He co-directs the Program for Clinical Effectiveness, and directs the Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice at Brigham and Women's Hospital. 

He has received a number of awards, including the first John M. Eisenberg Award for Excellence in Patient Safety Research from the National Quality Forum, the Henry Christian Award for Excellence in Research from the American Federation for Clinical Research, the Young Investigator of the Year Award from the Society for Medical Decision-Making, and the Clinical Investigator of the Year Award for the Northeast Region from the Society for General Internal Medicine. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine, the ASCI, the AAP, and ACMI.  Dr. Bates is a graduate of Stanford University, and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He began his fellowship in general internal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in 1988, and he received a Master of Science Degree in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard School of Public Health in 1990.