About
Brian Strom is currently serving as an Inaugural Chancellor at Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences. He also holds the position of Executive Vice President for Health Affairs at Rutgers University. He received his B.S. in Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University in 1971, then attained his M.D. from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1975. He did his residency at the University of California, San Francisco from 1975-1978. During this time, he also attained his MPH at the University of California, Berkeley.
Alongside serving as the Inaugural Chancellor at RBHS, Dr. Strom is heavily involved in pharmacoepidemiological research. He is considered one of the founders of this field, which studies the effects of drugs on populations. Uniquely, Dr. Strom was one of the first to integrate large automated databases in epidemiological research. One example of how Dr. Strom has impacted medicine and epidemiology is through his research he was able to reverse 50 years’ worth of medical policy on the use of antibiotics to prevent infective endocarditis.
Dr. Strom has shared his knowledge and research findings in many ways. He has written 15 books and 650 papers in the field. Furthermore, he has spoken at numerous venues, events, and international meetings. Dr. Strom has also done work with the NIH, CDC, USP, AAMC, JCAHO, FDA, some foreign governments, and many pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Strom is also the Editor-in-Chief of the pharmacoepidemiology journal, Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety, the official journal of the International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology. He is also founding editor of the primary reference book in the field, Pharmacoepidemiology, now in its 6th edition, and its corresponding textbook version, Textbook of Pharmacoepidemiology, now in its 2nd edition. He has been principal investigator for more than 275 grants, including over $115 million in direct costs alone.
Beyond being a researcher, writer, consultant, and chancellor, Dr. Strom is also a teacher. He taught at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where he served as the Executive Vice Dean for Institutional Affairs, Founding Chair of the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Founding Director of the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Founding Director of the Graduate Program in Epidemiology and Biostatistics. While at the University of Pennsylvania, he also was responsible for the creation and development of the Masters of Science in Clinical Epidemiology, which has trained more than 600 clinical epidemiologists, including large number of leaders in the field, some now serving for example as division chiefs or department chairs. Dr. Strom was PI or Co-PI of 11 different NIH-funded training grants (T32, D43, K12, and K30), each of which supported clinical epidemiology trainees in different specialties and subspecialties, and was the primary mentor for more than 40 clinical research trainees and numerous junior faculty members.
Dr. Strom is also a prominent member at the following committees and organizations. Included are 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, the Board of Directors for the Association for Patient-Oriented Research, and the Board of Directors for the Clinical Research Forum. He was previously President of the International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology and the Association for Clinical Research Training. He served on the Drug Utilization Review Committee and the Gerontology Committee of the United States Pharmacopoeia, served on the founding Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee for the US Food and Drug Administration. He chaired multiple Institute of Medicine (IOM) (now National Academy of Medicine) committees, including the Committee to Assess the Safety and Efficacy of the Anthrax Vaccine, Committee on Smallpox Vaccine Program Implementation, Committee to Review NIOSH’s Traumatic Injury Program, the Committee on the Consequences of Reducing Sodium in the Population, Committee on a National Strategy for the Elimination of Hepatitis B and C, and the Committee on Development of a Protocol to Evaluate the Concomitant Prescribing of Opioid and Benzodiazepine Medications and Veterans Deaths and Suicides. He was a member of the IOM Committee to Review the CDC Anthrax Vaccine Safety and Efficacy Research Program the IOM Committee on Standards for Developing Trustworthy Clinical Practice Guidelines, and the IOM Drug Forum.
His list of awards are just as many. 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 Physicians. He has also been an elected member of the IOM of the National Academy of Sciences since 2001. He received the 2003 Rawls-Palmer Progress in Medicine Award from the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, the Naomi M. Kanof Clinical Investigator Award of the Society for Investigative Dermatology, the George S. Pepper Professorship of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, and in 2006 he received the Sustained Scientific Excellence Award from the International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology. In addition, Dr. Strom was named the 2008 recipient of the John Phillips Memorial Award for Outstanding Work in Clinical Medicine. This award is from the American College of Physicians (ACP) and is considered to be one of the highest awards in Internal Medicine. In 2013 he was awarded Medical Research National Award for Career Achievement and Contribution to Clinical and Translational Science for translation from clinical use into public benefit and policy and the Association for Clinical and Translational Science/American Federation for. University of Pennsylvania awarded Dr. Strom Class of 1992 Class Teaching Award and the Samuel Martin Health Evaluation Sciences Research Award. Dr. Strom received the 2004 Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award, and the University’s most prestigious teaching award, in recognition of the contribution he has made in his career to clinical research teaching. The 2016 Oscar B. Hunter Career Award in Therapeutics was awarded to Dr. Strom for his outstanding contributions to clinical pharmacology and therapeutics. In 2017, Dr. Strom was named Honorary President of The Hellenic Society of Pharmacoepidemiology and in 2018 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Thrace in Greece.
Research Profile
Clinical Epidemiology, Pharmacoepidemiology, Epidemiology.
Select Publications
- Gerhard T, Stroup TS, Correll CU, Setoguchi S, Strom BL, Huang C, Tan Z, Crystal S, Olfson M. Mortality Risk of Antipsychotic Augmentation for Adult Depression. PLoS One. 2020 Sep 30;15(9):e0239206. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0239206. PMID: 32997687; PMCID: PMC7526884.
- Hoon D, Taylor MT, Kapadia P, Gerhard T, Strom BL, Horton DB. Trends in Off-Label Drug Use in Ambulatory Settings: 2006-2015. Pediatrics. 2019 Oct;144(4):e20190896. doi: 10.1542/peds.2019-0896. Epub 2019 Sep 16. PMID: 31527173; PMCID: PMC7286122.
- Horton DB, Gerhard T, Strom BL. Trends in Cough and Cold Medicine Recommendations for Children in the United States, 2002-2015. JAMA Pediatr. 2019 Jul 29;173(9):1–3. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.2252. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 31355863; PMCID: PMC6664374.
- Horton DB, Haynes K, Denburg MR, Thacker MM, Rose CD, Putt ME, Leonard MB, Strom BL. Oral Glucocorticoid use and Osteonecrosis in Children and Adults With Chronic Inflammatory Diseases: a Population-based Cohort Study. BMJ Open. 2017 Jul 21;7(7):e016788. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-016788. PMID: 28733303; PMCID: PMC5642748.
- Horton DB, Gerhard T, Davidow A, Strom BL. Impact of The Black Triangle Label on Prescribing of New Drugs in the United Kingdom: Lessons for The United States At A Time of Deregulation. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf. 2017 Nov;26(11):1307-1313. doi: 10.1002/pds.4304. Epub 2017 Aug 31. PMID: 28857309; PMCID: PMC5670006.
Current Grants
September 2019 – August 2021
NIH/NIA (75N95019C00057)
Data Analysis for Drug Repurposing for Effective Alzheimer’s Medicines (DREAM) Study
July 2019-June 2024
Strengthening the Evidence-Base for Drug-Disease Interactions in Older Adults.
NIH/NIA 1R01AG061092-01A1
Role: Co-I
July 2019-June 2023
Antibiotics, Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, and Antirheumatic Treatment Response
NIH/NIAMS 1R01AR074436-01A1
Role: Co-I
July 2019– March 2024
NIH/NIA 1R01AG060232-01A1
Disease Outcomes In Older Adults Under Extreme Heat, Air Pollution and Medication Use (DO-NO-HARM)
Role: Co-I
March 2019 – February 2024
NJ ACTS; ex officio on the External Advisory Committee (EAC)
NIH/NCATS UL1TR003017
Role: Chair of Board of Directors
New Jersey Alliance for Clinical and Translational Science: NJ ACTS
September 2016 – August 2021
K23 Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award
Drugs, Germs, and Joints: Antibiotics, Gut Microbiota, and Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis.
NIH K23-AR070286
Role: Mentor