David Birnbaum

Adjunct Professor, BA, MPH, PhD

David is proprietor of Applied Epidemiology; and has decades of experience working as a hospital epidemiologist and infection control practitioner in the United States and Canada.  After employment by hospitals and as an independent consultant, from 2008-2014 he served as inaugural Program Manager for the Washington State Department of Health’s Healthcare Associated Infections Program.

He has developed knowledge-based software products for the hospital epidemiology market; courses in epidemiology, microbiology, research methods, statistics, management and quality improvement for professionals in nursing, public health, infection control, health care quality improvement, hospital epidemiology, public and business administration; and consulted to various professional and government organizations.  His principal interests include surveillance methodology, infection control, quality assurance and improvement methods, health informatics, and self-directed (case/problem-based & distance) learning.  Dr. Birnbaum’s research and other publications have appeared in epidemiology, microbiology, governance and quality improvement journals.  As a former member of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), he served as its designated liaison to the Health Care Division of the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and chaired the international, interdisciplinary SHEA/ASQ-HCD Health Care Quality Improvement Special Interest Group.  David also was a section editor for two SHEA journals; a contributing editor then regional editor for Emerald’s international journal Clinical Governance; senior co-editor for Emerald’s International Journal of Health Governance; and has served on the editorial board of several journals.