David Rein
Pronouns: He/Him
David is a senior fellow and the director of NORC’s Public Health Analytics Program. He currently specializes in developing surveillance assets based on secondary data sources, health economics, and comparative effectiveness evaluations. David is an internationally recognized expert in visual disorders, viral hepatitis, and the use of secondary EHR and administrative claims data to improve surveillance, cost-effectiveness, and econometric estimates. David brings over 25 years of experience in public health research, practice, and policy, and is a first, senior or contributing author on more than 75 peer-reviewed publications. In 2015, David founded NORC’s Public Health Analytics Program, which is devoted to using quantitative data sources to answer questions of public health importance.
David is the Principal Investigator of the CDC’s Vision and Eye Health Surveillance System (VEHSS), a second project to develop state and county small area estimates of hearing loss, and a third National Institute of Aging R01 Grant to develop a surveillance system of diagnosed Alzheimer’s Dementia and Alzheimer’s Related Dementias. In other recent work, David worked with the CDC’s Vision Health Initiative to estimate the economic burden of vision loss and blindness in the United States. He has worked with CDC partners such as the Division of Injury Prevention and the Division of Viral Hepatitis to develop randomized experimental trials to estimate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of public health efforts to prevent falls and to increase testing for hepatitis C. David is also interested in health communication and has worked with CDC Foundation to create an interactive falls risk screening tool and a fall prevention planning tool.
Prior to joining NORC in 2011, David was a Senior Research Economist at RTI where he led efforts to develop epidemiological forecasting and cost-effectiveness models for vision disorders, hepatitis A, B, and C. His work was used to support the adoption of universal hepatitis A vaccination by the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, to recommend birth cohort hepatitis C testing by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, and by the National Center for Quality Assurance to support a glaucoma screening HEDIS measure. David began his public health career as an ORISE Fellow at CDC where he authored a foundational manuscript on the economic burden of Pelvic Inflammatory Disease and the association of mental health diagnoses and sexually transmitted infections.
Quick Links
Education
PhD
Georgia Institute of Technology and Georgia State University
MPA
Wagner School of Government, New York University
BA
New York University
Appointments & Affiliations
Editor
Ophthalmic Epidemiology
Member
American Academy of Ophthalmology
Member
Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology
Member
Gerontological Society of America
Honors & Awards
Highly Published Author Award | 2022
NORC at the University of Chicago
Most Outstanding Project Award | 2020
American Public Health Association Vision Care Section
Viral Hepatitis Action Coalition | 2017
Viral Hepatitis Action Coalition
Oberdorfer Award in Low Vision | 2014
Association for Research in Vision in Ophthalmology
Most Outstanding Project Award | 2012
American Public Health Association Vision Care Section
Poster of Distinction | 2011
American Association for the Study of Liver Disease
Outstanding Paper Author’s Award | 2007
RTI
Faculty Award, Top Public Policy PhD Candidate | 2003
Georgia Institute of Technology
NCHHSTP Nominee, Charles G. Shepherd Science Award (co-author) | 1986
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Project Contributions
Publications
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Comprehensive Analysis Reviews Methodologies of College Rankings
Press Release | September 9, 2024
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opens in new tab"Case Definition for Diagnosed Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementias in Medicare"
Journal Article | September 3, 2024
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New Study Shows Over 10% of Medicare Beneficiaries Have Diagnoses Indicating Dementia
Press Release | September 3, 2024
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NORC Launches County-Level Dementia Data Portal
NORC Article | September 3, 2024
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Acceptance for Gay and Lesbian People Grows in the U.S.
NORC Article | June 24, 2024
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opens in new tabThe prevalence of bilateral hearing loss in the United States in 2019: a small area estimation modelling approach for obtaining national, state, and county level estimates by demographic subgroup.
Journal Article | January 24, 2024
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Telemedicine-Based Risk Program to Prevent Falls Among Older Adults: Protocol for a Randomized Quality Improvement Trial
Journal Article | November 9, 2023
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opens in new tab"County-Level Variation in the Prevalence of Visual Acuity Loss or Blindness in the U.S."
Journal Article | July 22, 2022