Bio
David Goodman is a physician, health services researcher, and educator with a longstanding interest in the causes and consequences of health care variation. In his early years, his studies focused on the relationship of physician supply to population outcomes, and applied the findings to public policy development. More recently, he has developed a research portfolio that investigates unwarranted variation in the use of neonatal intensive care.
Goodman is one of the founding investigators of the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care and has led multiple Atlas projects on such topics as end-of-life cancer care, post hospital discharge care, and care for infants and children. He has served on multiple journal editorial boards, and federal and Institute of Medicine committees, including a term as the chair of the Council on Graduate Medical Education. His research papers and editorials have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Health Affairs, Pediatrics, and The New York Times.
He received a BA from the University of Vermont, an MD from the State University of New York Upstate Medical Center, and an MS in medical care epidemiology from Dartmouth College. He served his residency in pediatrics at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, and then practiced as a rural National Health Corps physician before joining the Dartmouth faculty.
Primary Contact:
Julie R. Doherty, MALS
Published Research
Medical practice variation: public reporting a first necessary step to spark change.
Westert GP, Groenewoud S, Wennberg JE, Gerard C, DaSilva P, Atsma F, Goodman DC
Int J Qual Health Care|2018 Apr 30
Death at no cost? Persons with no health insurance claims in the last year of life in Switzerland.
Panczak R, von Wyl V, Reich O, Luta X, Maessen M, Stuck AE, Berlin C, Schmidlin K, Goodman DC, Egger M, Clough-Gorr K, Zwahlen M
BMC Health Serv Res|2018 Mar 14
Data Deficiency in an Era of Expanding Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Care.
Goodman DC, Little GA
JAMA Pediatr|2018 Jan 1
Regional Variation in Neonatal Intensive Care Admissions and the Relationship to Bed Supply.
Harrison WN, Wasserman JR, Goodman DC
J Pediatr|2018 Jan
Caesarean sections and private insurance: systematic review and meta-analysis.
Hoxha I, Syrogiannouli L, Braha M, Goodman DC, da Costa BR, Jüni P
BMJ Open|2017 Aug 21
Courses Taught
PH 139:
Epidemiology/Biostatistics: Part 1
(4 Credits)
The epidemiology component of this course introduces the basic principles of epidemiology, including formulation of the research question, choice of study subjects, measures of disease frequency, assessment of exposure and disease status, study design (cross-sectional studies, prospective and retrospective cohort studies, case-control studies, and clinical trials), measures of association between exposure and disease (risk ratio and risk difference measures) and causal inference. Taught as lectures and assigned exercises, this course stresses the practical applications of epidemiological techniques.
The biostatistical topics in this course include vital rates and ratios, probability concepts, discrete and continuous probability distributions, populations and samples, and introduction to the use of computers for statistical analysis.
Core Requirement for MPH and MS
Prerequisites: None
PH 144:
The Current Status of Practice Variation Research
(1 Credit)
This short course will focus on readings from the book, Tracking Medicine, by John E. (Jack) Wennberg. Wennberg reviews his and his colleagues' work on practice variations, beginning with small area variation in Vermont, extending through efforts to evaluate the reasons behind variation in surgical procedures, and concluding with the more recent work associated with overuse of supply sensitive care as described in the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care. The course includes significant time for discussion and interaction.
Core Requirement for MPH and MS
Prerequisites: None
PH 140:
Epidemiology/Biostatistics: Part 2
(4 Credits)
The epidemiology component of this course extends the basic principles of epidemiology from PH139 and introduces additional basic principles of epidemiology, including measurement precision and accuracy, use of statistical testing, and interval estimation in epidemiological studies. Taught as lectures and assigned exercises, this course stresses the practical applications of epidemiological techniques.
The biostatistical topics in this course include exploring and organizing data, life tables, nonparametric analysis, sampling distributions and statistical inference, statistical estimations, hypothesis testing, sample size and power, two-sample comparisons, multiple comparisons, association and correlation, and simple linear regression.
Core Requirement for MPH and MS
Prerequisites: PH 139