Lesley Curtis Headshot

Core Faculty

Lesley Curtis, PhD

Contact

lesley.curtis@duke.edu

Focus Areas
Degree

PhD, University of Rochester

Dr. Curtis is a health services researcher who oversees a portfolio of projects that use observational data to address questions related to clinical and comparative effectiveness, pharmacoepidemiology, health care delivery, and epidemiological trends across a broad array of clinical conditions and clinical care settings. An expert in the use of Medicare claims data for health services and clinical outcomes research, she has led the linkage of Medicare claims with several large clinical registries and epidemiological cohort studies including the Framingham Heart Study and the Cardiovascular Health Study. 

Dr Curtis directs the Center for Pragmatic Health Systems Research at the Duke Clinical Research Institute and leads the Distributed Research Network Operations Center for PCORI’s National Clinical Research Network (PCORnet), working with health systems and patient networks to develop a harmonized data infrastructure for robust observational and interventional research.

Areas of expertise: Health Services Research and Health Policy

From Scholars@Duke

Scholars@Duke Profile
Curtis LH, Dhruva SS. What Observational Research Contributes and What It Requires (Accepted). Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 2026 Jun 2;87(21):2978–80.

Gouda P, Allyn N, Belin R, Borentain M, Butler J, Curtis L, et al. Obesity Pharmacotherapy: An Urgent Need for Progressing Science, Access, and Equity-JACC: Advances Expert Panel. JACC Adv. 2026 May;5(5):102713.

Dhruva SS, Curtis LH, Califf RM. Artificial Intelligence to Propel Evidence Generation. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2026 Apr 21;87(15):1867–9.