David W. Kaufman, Sc.D.

David Kaufman

Senior Epidemiologist
Slone Epidemiology Center

Professor of Epidemiology
Boston University Schools of Public Health

dwk@bu.edu

Education:

M.S., 1979, Harvard School of Public Health
Sc.D., 1983, Harvard School of Public Health

Research Interests:

David Kaufman joined the newly created Drug Epidemiology Unit (now the Slone Epidemiology Center ) in 1975, as a Research Associate. His early career as an epidemiologist at the DEU was primarily spent in studies of drugs and other factors in relation to cancer, heart disease, and various other conditions. Together with Drs. Slone, Shapiro, and Lynn Rosenberg, he participated in the development of Case-Control Surveillance. In the 1980s, Dr. Kaufman was co-investigator of the International Agranulocytosis and Aplastic Anemia Study, a pioneering effort in the evaluation of these extremely rare but often drug-induced blood dyscrasias that was conducted in seven countries with several hundred cases enrolled. He has directed studies of aplastic anemia in Thailand and the United States. The Thai study is the largest epidemiological investigation of aplastic anemia that has been conducted, with over 500 cases and 2200 controls. Dr. Kaufman pursued his interest in rare drug induced diseases as principal investigator of an international study of Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis conducted in four countries in Europe, and a study of anaphylaxis conducted in Spain, Hungary, India, and Sweden. Other major activities have included an international study of analgesics in relation to upper gastrointestinal bleeding and a multicenter study of end stage renal disease patients in three regions of the U.S. More recently, Dr. Kaufman worked closely with Allen Mitchell in the implementation of the Slone Survey, a U.S. population-based survey of medication use. He was principal investigator of a study that documented an inverse relationship between Oxalobacter formigenes, an oxalate metabolizing bacterium found in the colons of about 40% of the normal population, and calcium oxalate kidney stones. He also directed the Patient Registries at Slone: Myeloma and MDS, a nationwide effort that followed patients with the two diseases through the course of their illness. Currently Dr. Kaufman is co-principal investigator for a large scale behavioral surveillance program of acetaminophen users and is involved in other postmarketing surveillance activities. He was Assistant Director of the Slone Epidemiology Unit from 1986 to 1997, and was Associate Director from 1998 to 2016.