‘A Way to Pay It Forward’.
Bernard Harlow Professor of Epidemiology
Hometown: Westport, Connecticut
Breakfast: “I generally eat oatmeal or Wheatena almost every day, but on occasion I will splurge like I did today, where I had a sausage, cheese, and mushroom omelet.”
Extracurricular: Canoeing (“That’s a map of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and Quetico Provincial Park on my wall. It’s an area that sits between Minnesota and Ontario. It’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. I try to go regularly but I haven’t been in a couple of years so I’m overdue.”)
You recently concluded your term as president of the Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER) at its 50th annual meeting this June in Seattle. What is SER?
It’s the society that’s aligned with the American Journal of Epidemiology, one of the premier journals associated with our field. Its membership is really quite multidisciplinary in terms of epidemiologists and clinical and behavioral scientists all doing research at the population level in many different areas.
It’s also very strongly committed to students and early-stage investigator growth and development. Much of what we foster and develop through the society are support mechanisms to help train the next generation of epidemiologists. I think that’s really what’s very special about SER.
What do you see as the importance of mentoring in epidemiology?
Mentoring is a really important aspect of my own career. I was very well mentored, and I’ve always looked back on that and vowed that when I got to the point of being in the position to mentor and help guide our colleagues, that’s how I wanted to spend a large portion of my time—which is, frankly, the reason why I’m here at BU. There seemed to be a lot of support and encouragement for me to do that here.
During the SER meeting we celebrated intergenerational mentors and mentees. We set up an area to photograph generations of mentors and mentees, and we actually had one group that was five generations. Mine was four: my mentor Noel Weiss, me, Lauren Wise, who was my doctoral student, and one of Lauren’s doctoral students. It was fun to see people celebrate that kind of lineage.
What was the subject of your presidential address?
I actually used our SPH “Think. Teach. Do” motto as the foundation, and applied it to participation and involvement in our society. For example, I talked about how we can teach our colleagues across the country through the platforms that we have in our society, and then some of the “Dos” that we’ve done as a part of the society for our membership, the “Dos” that you can do for the society, and the “Dos” that you can do for yourself.
There was also some music at this meeting.
At the end of my presidential address, I performed a song that I half wrote—in that I stole the music from Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” and wrote new lyrics. It was a tribute to the 50 years as a society, and our 50 SER presidents that we’ve had, so it was called “50 Years to Love Our Epi.”
We also happened to have a social that was organized by our own SPH alum, Tim Lash, an outstanding epidemiologist now at Emory. Tim is an accomplished musician. His band flew up to Seattle and was joined by about 30 different SER members who played with the band, including many from here, Jenny Weuve and Lauren Wise—Lauren played her cello and Jenny sang and played a little piano. It was a lot of fun.
What led you to epidemiology?
I was a microbiology major in college and didn’t really know what I was going to do. My sister was living in Minnesota, and I went out to visit her and interviewed for the MPH program in epidemiology at the University of Minnesota, as well as the medical microbiology program.
I interviewed with Leonard Schuman, who founded the epi program at the University of Minnesota, and who wrote the first surgeon general’s report on lung cancer and smoking. He was a physician who wore a white coat that matched his slicked-back white hair. He sat at his desk with books piled to the ceiling and I sat in front of his desk, looking up at him as he expounded on the virtues of epidemiology. I was blown away.
After he was done he looked down at my transcripts and he said, “You know, your grades are kind of lousy. Go back and have each one of your professors send me your grade and a letter as to why I should let you into the program.” As it turns out, that semester I aced all of my courses, they wrote my letters, and he let me into the program. I am forever grateful for that.
In 2005 I saw on the back of this journal right here [American Journal of Epidemiology] an ad for the chair of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota. I thought back to Leonard Schuman and the kind of impact he had on me and I saw this as a way to pay it forward for the experience that I had. I didn’t expect to get the job but it turns out I did, and I chaired the department for 10 years. That was a great learning experience. I hired 22 faculty members, and I think that we really transformed the department. Then I stepped down and found my way here.
What led to your focus on gynecologic and reproductive disorders?
For my doctorate, I had the opportunity to train at the University of Washington. That’s when my mentor Noel Weiss introduced me to women’s cancers, particularly ovarian cancer, which led to my dissertation on borderline ovarian tumors. Noel was an amazing mentor for me.
Then I had the opportunity to go to Harvard and to Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where I spent 18 years with my colleague Dan Cramer. Together we founded the OB/GYN epidemiology center.
I developed an interest in how psychiatric morbidity actually influences reproductive and gynecologic issues. There is a profound relation between the mind-and-lower-genital-tract morbidity.
How does that relationship work?
Unexplained vulvar pain—vulvodynia—is currently one of my focus areas of research. There has been a dismissiveness, particularly with women being accused of it “all being in their head.” In truth, psychological sequelae could actually change immune function that leads to the development of this problem. That’s what’s so interesting about this area of research. As an epidemiologist it’s very challenging to study but very rewarding to really apply all of what we know to bridge psychiatric morbidity and reproductive and gynecological problems.
What is the state of epidemiological research around women’s health?
All of the funding for women’s health is lumped largely under one institute—and it doesn’t even have “Women’s Health” in its title. It’s the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and it’s so odd that women’s benign gynecological issues are largely funded through that institute which also has responsibilities for all of pediatric health. It probably has the lowest budget of all NIH institutes, so to think that they have to fund pediatrics as well as women’s health—it’s just not right.
It’s also a challenge to convince young investigators to go into this area where it will be very challenging to succeed in getting funding, but if you’re passionate about it you should follow that desire. That’s what I did.