Director, Medication Safety Program, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion

Dan Budnitz, MD, MPH, CAPT, USPHS

Dr. Budnitz directs the Medication Safety Program at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He leads a collaboration of CDC, FDA and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to conduct adverse drug event surveillance through the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS).

These surveillance data are the basis for the 2014 National Action Plan for Adverse Drug Event Prevention; the PROTECT Initiative, a public-private collaboration to reduce medication overdoses in young children; and more than 50 publications on medication safety, public health surveillance, and injury prevention.

Dr. Budnitz joined CDC as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer in 2001 after completing a BA in Government from Harvard University, a combined MD-MPH from Emory University, and internal medicine residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Budnitz is currently a Captain in the US Public Health Service and has practiced as a Board-Certified internist at the Atlanta VA Medical Center and the DeKalb-Grady Neighborhood Health Center.