Ben Reis, PhD

Ben Reis is Director of the Predictive Medicine Group and a member of the Faculty of Harvard Medical School and the Boston Children's Hospital Computational Health Informatics Program. His research focuses on understanding the fundamental patterns of human disease and on developing novel approaches for predicting disease. He has conducted large-scale population studies of COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness and safety, and developed novel methods for tracking and understanding pandemics through digital information sources. He has created systems that allow doctors to predict dangerous clinical conditions years in advance, including suicide and domestic abuse, as well as predictive pharmacology systems able to identify life-threatening adverse drug side-effects years in advance. He has advised the US government on establishing national biodefense systems, the Hong Kong government on building health infrastructure in response to pandemics, and various governments on establishing biodefense systems in advance of hosting the Olympic Games. He has been honored at the White House for his work on harnessing social networks to promote health, and was named one of the top health innovators in the world by the US State Department, USAID and NASA.