Michael J. Pencina, PhD
Adjunct Professor, Biostatistics - Boston University School of Public Health
Biography
Michael J. Pencina, PhD, is Duke Health's chief data scientist and serves as vice dean for data science, director of Duke AI Health, professor of biostatistics and bioinformatics at the Duke University School of Medicine, and Adjunct Professor of Biostatistics at Boston University School of Public Health. His work bridges the fields of data science, health care, and AI, contributing to Duke’s national leadership in trustworthy health AI.
Dr. Pencina partners with key leaders to develop data science strategies for Duke Health that span and connect academic research and clinical care. As vice dean for data science, he develops and implements quantitative science strategies to support the School of Medicine’s missions in education and training, laboratory and clinical science, and data science.
He co-founded and co-leads the national Coalition for Health AI (CHAI), a multi-stakeholder effort whose mission is to increase trustworthiness of AI by developing guidelines to drive high-quality health care through the adoption of credible, fair, and transparent health AI systems. He also spearheaded the establishment and co-chairs Duke Health’s Algorithm-Based Clinical Decision Support (ABCDS) Oversight Committee and serves as co-director of Duke’s Collaborative to Advance Clinical Health Equity (CACHE).
Dr. Pencina is an internationally recognized authority in the evaluation of AI algorithms. Guideline groups rely on his work to advance best practices for the application of clinical decision support tools in health delivery. He interacts frequently with investigators from academic and industry institutions as well as government officials. Since 2014, Thomson Reuters/Clarivate Analytics has regularly recognized Dr. Pencina as one of the world’s "highly cited researchers" in clinical medicine and social sciences, with more than 400 publications cited over 140,000 times. He serves as a deputy editor for statistics at JAMA-Cardiology.
Dr. Pencina joined the Duke University faculty in 2013, and served as director of biostatistics for the Duke Clinical Research Institute until 2018. Previously, he was an associate professor in the Department of Biostatistics at Boston University and the Framingham Heart Study, and director of statistical consulting at the Harvard Clinical Research Institute. He received his PhD in Mathematics and Statistics from Boston University in 2003 and holds master’s degrees from the University of Warsaw in actuarial mathematics and business culture.
Other Positions
- Member, Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research - Boston University
- Chief Data Scientist - Duke University Health System
- Vice Dean for Data Science - Duke University Health System
- Director, Duke AI Health - Duke University Health System
- Professor, Biostatistics & Bioinformatics - Duke University School of Medicine
Education
- Boston University, PhD Field of Study: Mathematics
- University of Warsaw, MA Field of Study: American Studies
- University of Warsaw, MA Field of Study: Applied Mathematics
Websites
Publications
- Published on 11/1/2025
Yang R, Tong J, Wang H, Huang H, Hu Z, Li P, Liu N, Lindsell CJ, Pencina MJ, Chen Y, Hong C. Enabling inclusive systematic reviews: incorporating preprint articles with large language model-driven evaluations. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2025 Nov 01; 32(11):1718-1725. PMID: 40886699.
Read At: PubMed
- Published on 10/1/2025
Khan SS, Huang X, Ndumele CE, Blumenthal RS, Pencina MJ, Sniderman AD, Shah NS, Wilkins JT, Lloyd-Jones DM. Statin Eligibility According to Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Risk in the US. JAMA Cardiol. 2025 Oct 01; 10(10):1071-1073. PMID: 40833687.
Read At: PubMed
- Published on 9/18/2025
Elmore M, Mello MM, Lehmann L, Pencina M, Char D, Ghane M, Orr-Ewing L, Anderson B, Economou-Zavlanos NJ. Building Consensus for Responsible AI in Healthcare. Am J Bioeth. 2025 Oct; 25(10):5-8. PMID: 40965474.
Read At: PubMed
- Published on 8/27/2025
Mallya P, Henao R, Hong C, Wojdyla D, Schibler T, Manchanda V, Pencina M, Hall J, Zhao J. Automated Data Harmonization in Clinical Research: Natural Language Processing Approach. JMIR Form Res. 2025 Aug 27; 9:e75608. PMID: 40874791.
Read At: PubMed
- Published on 7/14/2025
Sniderman AD, Pencina MJ, Thanassoulis G. ApoB and Lp(a): core measures to assess cardiovascular risk. Eur Heart J. 2025 Jul 14; 46(27):2702-2704. PMID: 40326333.
Read At: PubMed
- Published on 6/16/2025
Rich-Edwards JW, Rexrode KM, Liu T, Hong C, Quist-Nelson J, Meng ML, Vonen HD, Pencina MJ, Henao R. Letter by Rich-Edwards et al Regarding Article, "Assessing the Accuracy of Cardiovascular Disease Prediction Using Female-Specific Risk Factors in Women Aged 45 to 69 Years in the UK Biobank Study". Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes. 2025 Jul; 18(7):e011970. PMID: 40519010.
Read At: PubMed
- Published on 6/13/2025
Wang H, Yang R, Alwakeel M, Kayastha A, Chowdhury A, Biro JM, Sorrentino AD, Handley JL, Hantzmon S, Bessias S, Economou-Zavlanos NJ, Bedoya A, Agrawal M, Ratwani RM, Poon EG, Pencina MJ, Pollak KI, Hong C. An evaluation framework for ambient digital scribing tools in clinical applications. NPJ Digit Med. 2025 Jun 13; 8(1):358. PMID: 40514413.
Read At: PubMed
- Published on 6/7/2025
Pencina MJ, Silcox C, Economou-Zavlanos N, McClellan M. Bridging the Gap Between Developers and Implementers in Health AI. JAMA Health Forum. 2025 Jun 07; 6(6):e251692. PMID: 40540282.
Read At: PubMed
- Published on 6/6/2025
Sehayek D, Cole J, Björnson E, Wilkins JT, Mortensen MB, Dufresne L, Pencina KM, Pencina MJ, Thanassoulis G, Sniderman AD. ApoB, LDL-C, and non-HDL-C as markers of cardiovascular risk. J Clin Lipidol. 2025; 19(4):844-859. PMID: 40681368.
Read At: PubMed
- Published on 5/30/2025
Grambow SC, Desai M, Weinfurt KP, Lindsell CJ, Pencina MJ, Rende L, Pomann GM. Integrating large language models in biostatistical workflows for clinical and translational research. J Clin Transl Sci. 2025; 9(1):e131. PMID: 40665965.
Read At: PubMed
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