John Brownstein is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

epidemiologist Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population. It is a cornerstone of public health, and shapes policy decisions and evidenc ...

and

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

of Medicine at the

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

as well as the Chief Innovation Officer at Boston Children’s Hospital. His research focuses on development of computational methods in

epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population. It is a cornerstone of public health, and shapes policy decisions and evide ...

for applications to

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...

also known as

computational epidemiology Computational epidemiology is a multidisciplinary field that uses techniques from computer science, mathematics, geographic information science and public health to better understand issues central to epidemiology such as the spread of diseases ...

or e-epidemiology He is also the founder of several global

public health surveillance Public health surveillance (also epidemiological surveillance, clinical surveillance or syndromic surveillance) is, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), "the continuous, systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of health-relat ...

systems including

HealthMap HealthMap is a freely accessible, automated electronic information system for monitoring, organizing, and visualizing reports of global disease outbreaks according to geography, time, and infectious disease agent. In operation since September 2006, ...

. He is most known for his work on global tracking of disease outbreaks.

Early life and education

Brownstein is the son of Veronica (Coleman) and Stephen Brownstein, and his sister is

Jessica Mulroney Jessica Mulroney (née Brownstein; born March 14, 1980) is a Canadian fashion stylist and marketing consultant, noted for her previous work with Kleinfeld Bridal ( Hudson's Bay), past guest appearances on television shows ''Good Morning America' ...

. He is a descendant of the founders of

Browns Shoes Browns Shoes Inc. is a Canadian fashion footwear retailer that owns and operates 70 stores across Canada under a variety of footwear brands. The company's headquarters is based in the Montreal borough of Saint-Laurent, Quebec. History Browns S ...

. He grew up in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

and obtained his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

from the

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...

in 1999. He received a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in 2004 from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

for work on the emergence of

Lyme disease Lyme disease, also known as Lyme borreliosis, is a vector-borne disease caused by the ''Borrelia'' bacterium, which is spread by ticks in the genus ''Ixodes''. The most common sign of infection is an expanding red rash, known as erythema migran ...

and

West Nile virus West Nile virus (WNV) is a single-stranded RNA virus that causes West Nile fever. It is a member of the family '' Flaviviridae'', from the genus '' Flavivirus'', which also contains the Zika virus, dengue virus, and yellow fever virus. The v ...

in the United States.

Career and research

Brownstein joined the faculty at

and Boston Children’s Hospital in 2005, where he focused on the intersection of epidemiology and computer science. He directs the Computational Epidemiology Group at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Innovation and Digital Health Accelerator also at Boston Children. He was appointed as full Professor of Pediatrics and Biomedical Informatics at

in 2015; tenured at age 36, he was one of the youngest professors to receive tenure in the modern history of Harvard Medical School. He received the

Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) is the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers. The White ...

in 2010 and the

Lagrange Prize The Lagrange-CRT Foundation Prize is an annual International award created by the CRT Foundation with the scientific coordination of the ISI Foundation. The prize is awarded for scientific research in the field of complexity sciences, its appl ...

in 2016. He was honored with the 40 under 40 award by Boston Business Journal in 2015 and by Medtech Boston in 2016. Brownstein’s pioneered the creation of

Computational epidemiology Computational epidemiology is a multidisciplinary field that uses techniques from computer science, mathematics, geographic information science and public health to better understand issues central to epidemiology such as the spread of diseases ...

and E-epidemiology- utilizing diverse digital data sources to understand populations. He has published 200 peer-reviewed papers, all focused on new methods and applications in public health surveillance. Overall, his research agenda aims to facilitate the control and prevention of disease through better epidemiologic understanding of factors influencing disease risk, improved practice of public health and engaging the public around critical health issues. As part of this work, he has built and maintains several patient facing public health systems, including

, an internet-based global infectious disease intelligence system. During the

H1N1 pandemic The 2009 swine flu pandemic, caused by the H1N1 influenza virus and declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) from June 2009 to August 2010, is the third recent flu pandemic involving the H1N1 virus (the first being the 1918–1920 Span ...

, his research made important contributions to our understanding of the emergence of the virus in Mexico and its subsequent global spread. His work is credited with supporting early detection and surveillance of Cholera in 2010, Ebola in 2014,

Zika Zika fever, also known as Zika virus disease or simply Zika, is an infectious disease caused by the Zika virus. Most cases have no symptoms, but when present they are usually mild and can resemble dengue fever. Symptoms may include fever, red ...

in 2015. His work has led to the application of crowdsourcing in health; a field termed "participatory epidemiology". . His work has been funded from diverse array of sources including The

U.S. Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secur ...

, Google.org and the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

(NIH). Along with

Sachin H. Jain Sachin H. Jain (born 1980) is an American physician who held leadership positions in the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). From 2015 to 2020, he se ...

he coined the term "Digital Phenotype" in a seminal paper in Nature Biotechnology. On December 30, 2019, the HealthMap system led by Brownstein was the first electronic disease surveillance program to issue an alert for an unknown pneumonia in Wuhan, China. Following identification of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19 disease, Brownstein coauthored numerous papers on nopharmaceutical interventions, socioeconomic disparities, and participatory surveillance related to the global pandemic. Brownstein also coauthored a controversial paper that analyzed satellite image data and search engine traffic data and speculated that COVID-May 19 have started as early as Fall 2019 in Wuhan. This claim received widespread media coverage including reports and an academic commentary that questioned the academic rigour of the study. Brownstein also published one of the first empirical manuscripts that showed the usage of face masks were effective at decreasing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the U.S. population.

Vaccines.gov

In 2009, in response to the H1N1 pandemic, Google.org launched a web application to help people find their closest vaccination site. The free portal partnered with pharmacy chains and vaccine providers to provide real-time availability of seasonal influenza and H1N1 vaccinations. In 2012, this vaccine-finding system merged with the Healthmap team to become VaccineFinder.org where, under Brownstein's leadership, it would expand to include a more diverse selection of vaccines and providers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the system would expand further to include all US providers of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. In partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Department of Health and Human Services, Brownstein's team transitioned VaccineFinder to power the newly announced US government SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-finding website, Vaccines.gov. The revamped and rebranded website included a Spanish mirror site (Vacunas.gov), a 24/7 hotline and text-messaging assistance service.

Other Efforts

Brownstein is co-founder of Epidemico a commercial spinoff of Boston Children’s Hospital that was acquired by

Booz Allen Hamilton Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation (informally Booz Allen) is the parent of Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., an American management and information technology consulting firm, headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in Greater Washington, D.C., with 8 ...

in 2014. He is also the official advisor to

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), packa ...

on healthcare applications where he started the UberHealth initiative. From that work, he founded the company Circulation which was acquired by Logisticare in 2018. He joined

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

as a Medical Contributor as part of their

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

coverage. He won an Emmy as part of the team behind the ABC special The Shot: Race for the Vaccine, a documentary on the making of the COVID vaccine.https://theemmys.tv/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/newsdoc-42nd-news-programming-winners-rev-10.26.21.pdf

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brownstein, John Living people Canadian epidemiologists American health educators Harvard Medical School faculty McGill University Faculty of Science alumni Scientists from Montreal Yale School of Public Health alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Canadian emigrants to the United States