David Harrington

Biography

Research and other activities

David Harrington was involved in two different lines of research, statistical methods for clinical trials and prospective cohort studies in which the time to an event is a primary outcome and in health services research. He has worked in efficient nonparametric tests and regression methods for right-censored data, sequential designs for clinical trials, and nonparametric methods for estimating nonlinear covariate effects on survival.

Dr. Harrington was the principal investigator of the Statistical Coordinating Center for the Cancer Care Outcomes Research and Surveillance (CanCORS) Consortium. This NCI-funded study was a network of sites around the country that are conducting a population-based study of access to and outcomes from cancer care, with special focus on ethnic subgroups and subgroups defined by age. Dr. Harrington's primary interest is in hematologic malignancies, and he has worked in that area with Dana-Farber investigators. He and Margaret Shipp of the Dana-Farber co-chaired the International non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Prognostic Factors Project, a collabration of United States, Canadian and European treatment centers. He was formerly the project leader of the Biostatistics Core and Director of the Biostatistics Research Program in the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC).

Dr. Harrington served as the Chair, Department of Data Science (formerly Department of Biostatistics) and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute from 1998 to 2009 and Acting Chair of the Department of Statistics, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, from 2012 to 2014. In the Department of Statistics he was co-director of Undergraduate Studies between 2008 and 2015. He was a statistical editor for the New England Journal of Medicine from 2010 - 2021, and was the lead statistical editor from 2016 - 2021.

He is currently retired and, in addition to serving on Advisory Committees, tutors high school and college students in introductory statistics.

Education and Training

• BA, Mathematics
  Tufts University
• MA, Mathematics
  University of Maryland
• PhD, Mathematics
  University of Maryland
• MA (Hon), General
  Harvard University

Awards and Honors

• Marvin Zelen Leadership Award, 2023
  Harvard University
• Distinguished Emeritus Award, 2023
  Harvard T.H. Chan School
• Herman Callaert Leadership Award, 2017
  Hasselt University
• Hoopes Prize for Senior Thesis Mentoring, 2014
  Harvard College
• Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize, 2013
  Harvard College
• Nichols Award for Teaching Excellence, 1995
  Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
• Elected Fellow, 1994
  International Statistical Institute
• Elected Fellow, 1993
  Institute of Mathematical Statistics
• Elected Fellow, 1992
  American Statistical Association

Publications

• Medication Errors as a Marker of Resident Competency.

  Subillaga OE, Lynch K, Haas-Rodriguez A, Harrington D, Miner T. Cureus 2024

• Maximizing wound coverage in full-thickness skin defects: A randomized-controlled trial of autologous skin cell suspension and widely meshed autograft versus standard autografting.

  Henry S, Mapula S, Grevious M, Foster KN, Phelan H, Shupp J, Chan R, Harrington D, Mashruwala N, Brown DA, Mir H, Singer G, Cordova A, Rae L, Chin T, Castanon L, Bell D, Hughes W, Molnar JA. J Trauma Acute Care Surg 2024 01 01

• A Large, Simple Trial Leading to Complex Questions.

  Harrington DP, Baden LR, Hogan JW. N Engl J Med 2021 02 11

• Preterm Birth and 17OHP - Why the FDA Should Not Withdraw Approval.

  Greene MF, Klebanoff MA, Harrington D. N Engl J Med 2020 Dec 10

• The FDA and the Importance of Trust.

  Baden LR, Solomon CG, Greene MF, D'Agostino RB, Harrington D. N Engl J Med 2020 12 31