David Bates is an internationally renowned expert in patient safety, using information technology to improve care, quality-of-care, cost-effectiveness and outcomes assessment in medical practice.

He is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and a professor of health policy and management at the Harvard School of Public Health, where he co-directs the Program in Clinical Effectiveness. He directs the Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and serves as external program lead for research in the World Health Organization’s Global Alliance for Patient Safety.  He is also medical director of clinical and quality analysis at Partners Healthcare System Inc.

Bates is the president of the International Society for Quality in Healthcare (ISQua) and the editor of the Journal of Patient Safety. He serves as the principle investigator of the Health Information Technology CERT.  He has been elected to the Institute of Medicine, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians and the American College of Medical Informatics, and was chairman of the board of the American Medical Informatics Association. He has more than 600 peer-reviewed publications, and an H-index above 80.