• Variation in thequality and efficiency of newborn care, particularly neonatal intensive care.
  • Inquiry into the theories, methods, and implications of the causes and consequences ofunwarranted variation in health care capacity and utilization.
  • The international development and dissemination of research into unwarranted health care variation.

David Goodman is a physician, health services researcher, and educator with a longstanding interest in the causes and consequences of health care variation. In his early years, his studies focused on the relationship of physician supply to population outcomes, and applied the findings to public policy development. More recently, he has developed a research portfolio that investigates unwarranted variation in the use of neonatal intensive care.

Goodman is one of the founding investigators of the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care and has led multiple Atlas projects on such topics as end-of-life cancer care, post hospital discharge care, and care for infants and children. He has served on multiple journal editorial boards, and federal and Institute of Medicine committees, including a term as the chair of the Council on Graduate Medical Education. His research papers and editorials have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Health Affairs, Pediatrics, and The New York Times.

He received a BA from the University of Vermont, an MD from the State University of New York Upstate Medical Center, and an MS in medical care epidemiology from Dartmouth College. He served his residency in pediatrics at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, and then practiced as a rural National Health Corps physician before joining the Dartmouth faculty.