David Penson M.D. ’91

DPlabcost2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

David F. Penson, M.D., M.P.H. obtained his medical degree from Boston University in 1991. He completed his urology residency at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles in 1997 and then completed the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars fellowship at Yale University in 1999.  He also obtained a Masters of Public Health at Yale in 2000.  He has been on at the University of Washington and the University of Southern California. He joined the faculty at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2009 and he holds the Hamilton and Howd Chair in Urologic Oncology in addition to being Professor of Urologic Surgery, Medicine and Health Policy and founding Director of the Center for Surgical Quality and Outcomes Research.  He was named Chair of the Department of Urologic Surgery at Vanderbilt in 2015. He currently maintains a clinical practice in urologic oncology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Dr. Penson’s research is focused on health services research and clinical epidemiology as applied to urologic disease.  His primary focus is on prostate cancer, where he has published extensively both on localized and advanced disease. He has obtained numerous grants from the National Cancer Institute, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to study the comparative effectiveness of treatments for localized prostate cancer.  Dr. Penson’s work has been published in a variety of journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Health Affairs, and Journal of the National Cancer Institute.  He chaired the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement advanced prostate cancer panel that developed the standard set of patient-reported outcome measures for use in advanced disease. He currently chairs the National Institutes of Health’s Health Services Outcomes and Delivery (HSOD) study section, which reviews almost all health services research grant submitted to the NIH.  The American Urological Association (AUA) recognized his research and clinical efforts in 2006, when he received the prestigious Gold Cystoscope award, which is given annually to the urologist who has contributed the most to the specialty in the first 10 years after completing his/her residency.

Dr. Penson maintains a keen interest in health policy and improving the quality of healthcare in the U.S.  In addition to serving as Chairman of the American Urological Association’s Public Policy Council, Dr. Penson has served on various committees in the National Quality Forum, the Ambulatory Quality Alliance, the AMA Physician Consortium for Quality Improvement, the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer and AHRQ’s National Advisory Council.  He has testified before congress and has been quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and various other high-profile media outlets on various health policy issues.