Nathaniel Hupert, MD, MPH

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Biography

Dr. Nathaniel Hupert is a primary care internal medicine specialist and a researcher in public health and medical decision making in the Departments of Public Health and Medicine, Weill Medical College of Cornell University. He trained at Harvard Medical School, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and the Harvard School of Public Health.

His research concerns a number of topics that fall under the heading of "computational public health," the application of mathematical and simulation modeling techniques to health problems that extend beyond the bounds of traditional epidemiology.   

Since September 2000, he has directed a series of federally financed research projects on hospital and clinical preparedness for bioterrorism.  In the course of this research, Dr. Hupert created a series of computer simulations to study mass antibiotic distribution and hospital capacity in the event of a large-scale anthrax attack or smallpox release. In January, 2001 he began collaboration with the NYC Office of Emergency Management (OEM) and the NYC Department of Health to provide critical computer simulation expertise to the City in development of specific emergency response protocols for bioterrorism.

Since 2005, Dr. Hupert has worked in close collaboration with colleagues in the Cornell College of Engineering, School of Operations Research and Information Engineering, to bring state-of-the-art engineering solutions to critical public health problems.  These collaborative efforts have been formalized with the creation of the cross-campus Institute for Disease and Disaster Preparedness, co-led by Dr. Hupert and Professor Jack Muckstadt, the Acheson-Laibe Professor of Engineering at Cornell.

His current research focuses on advancing the science of public health response logistics, with three main modeling projects underway: refinement of the AHRQ Surge Model which provides health resource consumption estimates for pandemic influenza; extension of the Weill Cornell Bioterrorism and Epidemic Outbreak Model (BERM), one of three computer models specifically promoted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for public health preparedness planning nationwide, and the only planning model cited by name in the Federal government's Pandemic Influenza Plan; and a collaboration with University of California-Davis and the State of California Department of Health (funded by the Department of Homeland Security) to implement Weill Cornell models to improve regional hospital management of mass casualty events.

Dr. Hupert has served on a variety of panels including the Medical Management Committee, Bioterrorism Planning Section (NYC OEM, 2000-2003); the Anthrax Modeling Working Group of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary's Council on Public Health Preparedness (2004-5); and RAND Corporation's Expert Panel on Defining Public Health Preparedness (2007). He has lectured nationally on bioterrorism preparedness for the CDC and the Strategic Pharmaceutical Stockpile program and for the DHHS Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.