John P.A. Ioannidis

Professor of Medicine (Stanford Prevention Research), of Epidemiology and Population Health and, by courtesy, of Biomedical Data Science

Bio

My work aims to improve research methods and practices and to enhance approaches to integrating information and generating reliable evidence. Science is the best thing that can happen to humans, but doing research is like swimming in an ocean at night. Science thrives in darkness. Born in New York City (1965), raised in Athens. Valedictorian (1984), Athens College; National Award, Greek Mathematical Society (1984); MD (top rank of medical school class) from National University of Athens (1990); also received DSc in biopathology from same institution. Trained at Harvard and Tufts (internal medicine, Infectious diseases), then held positions at NIH, Johns Hopkins, Tufts. Chaired the Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Ioannina Medical School (1999-2010) while also holding adjunct professor positions at Harvard, Tufts, and Imperial College. Moved to Stanford in 2010, initially as Director/C.F. Rehnborg Chair at Stanford Prevention Research Center, then diversified with appointments in 4 departments and membership in 8 centers/institutes at Stanford. Launched the PhD program in Epidemiology & Clinical Research and the MS program in Community Health & Prevention Research. Launched METRICS in 2014. NCI/NIH Senior Advisor on Knowledge Integration (2012-6). President (2023-4), Association of American Physicians. President, Society for Research Synthesis Methodology. Editorial board member of many leading journals (including PLoS Medicine, Lancet, Annals of Internal Medicine, JNCI, many others) and Editor-in-Chief of European Journal of Clinical Investigation (2010-2019). Delivered ~700 invited and honorary lectures. Recipient of many awards (e.g. European Award for Excellence in Clinical Science [2007], Medal for Distinguished Service, Teachers College, Columbia U [2015], Chanchlani Global Health Award [2017], Epiphany Science Courage Award [2018], Einstein fellow [2018], Gordon award [2019], Albert Stuyvenberg Medal (2021), Harwood Prize [2022]). Inducted in Association of American Physicians (2009), European Academy of Cancer Sciences (2010) American Epidemiological Society (2015), European Academy of Sciences and Arts (2015), National Academy of Medicine (2018), Accademia delle Scienze (Bologna) (2021). Honorary titles from FORTH (2014) and Ioannina (2015), honorary doctorates from Rotterdam (2015), Athens (2017), Tilburg (2019), Edinburgh (2021), Thessaloniki (2023), McMaster (ceremony 11/2024). Multiple honorary lectureships/visiting professorships (Caltech, Oxford, LSHTM, Yale, U Utah, U Conn, UC Davis, U Penn, Wash U St. Louis, NIH, Cedars-Sinai among others). The PLoS Medicine paper on “Why most published research findings are false” is the most-accessed article in the history of Public Library of Science (>3 million hits). Author of 9 literary books, three of them shortlisted for best book of the year Anagnostis awards in Greece. Latest book (in English, published in 2022) is 2 books hyperlinked to each other. Brave Thinker scientist for 2010 per Atlantic, “may be one of the most influential scientists alive”. Highly Cited Researcher (Clarivate) in Clinical Medicine, Social Sciences and Psychiatry/Psychology. h=259 (Google Scholar), current citation rate: 6,000 new citations per month (among the 6 scientists worldwide who are currently the most commonly cited). When contrasted against my vast ignorance, these values offer excellent proof that citation metrics can be horribly unreliable. I have no personal social media accounts - I admire people who can outpour their error-free wisdom in them, but I make a lot of errors, I need to revisit my writings multiple times before publishing, and I see no reason to make a fool of myself more frequently than it is sadly unavoidable. I consider myself privileged to have learned and to continue to learn from interactions with students and young scientists (of all ages) from all over the world and I love to be constantly reminded that I know next to nothing.

Academic Appointments

Professor, Medicine - Stanford Prevention Research Center
Professor, Epidemiology and Population Health
Professor (By courtesy), Department of Biomedical Data Science
Member, Bio-X
Member, Cardiovascular Institute
Member, Stanford Cancer Institute
Affiliate, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment

Administrative Appointments

Co-Director, Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS) (2013 - Present)
Editor-in-chief, European Journal of Clinical Investigation (2010 - 2019)
Member, Stanford Cardiovascular Institute (2010 - Present)
Member, Stanford Cancer Center (2010 - Present)
Affiliate, Stanford Center on Longevity (2012 - Present)
Affiliated faculty, Woods Institute for the Environment (2011 - Present)
Member, Stanford Diabetes Research Center (2018 - Present)
Professor of Statistics (by courtesy), Stanford University School of Humanities and Sciences (2011 - Present)
Professor of Health Research and Policy, Stanford University School of Medicine (2011 - Present)
Professor of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine (2010 - Present)
Professor of Biomedical Data Science (by courtesy), Stanford University School of Medicine (2016 - Present)
Director, Stanford Prevention Research Center (2010 - 2016)

Honors & Awards

The Founders' Medal for Lifelong Contributions to Meta-Science, Meta-Analysis of Economics Research Network (MAER-Net) (2024)
Honorary doctorate, McMaster University (2024 (ceremony 11/2024))
ISABS lecture, International Society for Applied Biological Sciences (2024)
Stenick-Mayer lecture, World Conference on Research Integrity (2024)
Howard N. Allen Visiting Professorship in Evidence-Based Medicine, Cedars-Sinai, Los Angeles (2024)
Blake Award, Association of American Physicians (2024)
Giants in Medicine lecture, UCSD (2024)
Honorary PhD, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2023)
President, Association of American Physicians (2023)
ERA Chair holder, European Commission (2023)
QUEST fellow, Berlin Institute of Health (2022)
Inaugural Harwood Prize for Intellectual Courage, AIER (2022)
President Elect, Association of American Physicians (to serve as Vice President 2022-2023, President 2023-2024) (2022)
Albert Stuyvenberg Medal, European Society for Clinical Investigation (2021)
Elected corresponding member, Accademia delle Scienze (Bologna) (2021)
Haldane lecture, Wolfson College, Oxford University (2021)
Honorary doctorate (medicine), University of Edinburgh (2021)
J Arliss Pollock Award and Memorial Lecture, American Society of Neuroradiology (2021)
Morris/Paffenbarger Exercise is Medicine® Keynote Lecture, American College of Sports Medicine (2021)
Roy and Diana Vagelos inaugural lecture, World Hellenic Biomedical Association (2021)
C.R. Stephen lecture, Washington University St. Louis (2019)
Gordon Award, National Institutes of Health (2019)
Honorary PhD, University of Tilburg (2019)
Honorary President, Medical and Surgical Society of Corfu (2019)
Elected member, National Academy of Medicine (2018)
David and Rosemary Adamson Lecture on Excellence in Reproductive Medicine, ASRM (2018)
Einstein fellow, Berlin Institute of Health, Einstein Stiftung and Stiftung Charite (2018)
Epiphany Science Courage Award, Novim (inaugural award) (2018)
Gonatas memorial lectureship, University of Pennsylvania (2018)
Elected Councilor, Association of American Physicians (2017-2022)
Annual Distinguished Investigator, University of Connecticut School of Medicine and Health Center (2017)
Chanchlani Award for Global Health, McMaster University (2017)
David-Sackett-Preis, Deutsche Netzwerk Evidenzbasierte Medizin (2017)
Honorary PhD (health sciences), University of Athens (2017)
Snively visiting professorship, UC Davis (2017)
Anatomy Lesson lecturer, University of Amsterdam and Academic Medical Center (2016)
Harris lectureship in science and civilization, Caltech (2016)
Levine lectureship, Yale (2016)
Lifetime Achievement Award, Hellenic Society for Pharmacological Science (2016)
Snyder Lectureship, University of Utah (2016)
Elected member, American Epidemiological Society (2015)
Elected member, European Academy of Sciences and Arts (2015)
Honorary PhD, Erasmus University Rotterdam (2015)
Litchfield Lectureship, Oxford University (2015)
Medal for Distinguished Service, Teachers College, Columbia University (2015)
Honorary member, FORTH (2014)
Honorary professor (omotimos), University of Ioannina (2014)
Elected fellow, European Academy of Cancer Sciences (2010)
President, Society for Research Synthesis Methodology (2009-2010)
Elected member, Association of American Physicians (2009)
European Award for Excellence in Clinical Science, European Society for Clinical Investigation (2007)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations

Chair, Scientific Advisory Board, Usher Institute for Population Health Sciences and Informatics, University of Edinburgh (2015 - Present)
Faculty Fellow, Stanford Center for Innovation on Global Health (2015 - Present)
Member, Scientific Advisory Board, Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in Social Sciences (2014 - Present)
Member, Scientific Advisory Board, Center for Open Science (2013 - Present)
Member, Scientific Advisory Board, International Epidemiology Institute (2012 - Present)
Member, Scientific Advisory Board, Reproducibility Initiative (2012 - Present)
Senior Advisor for Knowledge Integration, NCI, NIH (2012 - 2016)
Member, Methodology Committee, PCORI (2011 - 2013)
Executive Board Member and Center Director, Human Genome Epidemiology Network (2004 - Present)
Vice President, Board of Directors, Hellenic Center for Infectious Disease Control (2000 - 2001)

Projects

COVID-19 PUBLISHED WORK
The COVID-19 pandemic was a major global crisis and obtaining reliable evidence was essential for optimizing outcomes and saving lives. Here is a list of my published work on this major challenge. Misinformation and distortion of my work and of the work of other scientists unfortunately has been rampant – not only in obviously unreliable sources but sometimes also in seemingly reliable sources, e.g. Wikipedia, and in otherwise usually serious journalistic or scholarly venues. Readers should try to consult always the most up-to-date and most reliable information.

Location

Stanford

For More Information:
- covid19papers.docx

Professional Education

Fellowship, New England Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, Infectious Diseases (1996)
Residency, New England Deaconess Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Internal Medicine (1993)
DSc, University of Athens School of Medicine, Athens, Greece, Biopathology (1996)
MD, University of Athens School of Medicine, Athens, Greece, Medicine (1990)

Current Research and Scholarly Interests

My work is trying to optimize the chances of getting more reliable, trustworthy, and useful research. I have worked in the fields of evidence-based medicine, clinical investigation, clinical and molecular epidemiology, clinical research methodology, empirical research methods, statistics, and genomics. I have a strong interest in meta-research and in large-scale evidence (in particular randomized trials and meta-analyses) and in appraisal and control of diverse biases in biomedical research and beyond. I am interested in developing and applying new research methods, and in the interdisciplinary enhancement of existing research methods for study design and analysis. Some of my most influential papers in terms of citations are those addressing issues of reproducibility, replication validity, biases in biomedical research and other fields, research synthesis methods, extensions of meta-analysis, genome-wide association studies and agnostic evaluation of associations, and validity of randomized trials and observational research. I have also designed, steered and participated in influential randomized trials (in particular, the major trials that changed decisively the management and outcome of HIV infection, but also trials in nephrology, and in antibiotic use in the community), and large international consortia that have helped transform the efficiency of research in diverse fields of genomic, molecular and clinical epidemiology. I enjoy working with a diverse array of colleagues from very diverse disciplines and to have an opportunity to learn from both senior and junior investigators, and particularly students at all levels.

Clinical Trials

Personal Genomics for Preventive Cardiology Not Recruiting
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The purpose of this study is to see if providing information to a person on their inherited (genetic) risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) helps to motivate that person to change their diet, lifestyle or medication regimen to alter their risk.

Stanford is currently not accepting patients for this trial. For more information, please contact Josh Knowles, 650-804-2526.

Lead Sponsor
- Stanford University
Stanford Investigators
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Stanford Advisees

Postdoctoral Faculty Sponsor
Sarah Tanveer
Doctoral Dissertation Advisor (AC)
Matthew Sigurdson

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Clinics & Services

Research Resources

Professional Training

Education Resources

John P.A. Ioannidis

Professor of Medicine (Stanford Prevention Research), of Epidemiology and Population Health and, by courtesy, of Biomedical Data Science

Location

For More Information:

Lead Sponsor

Stanford Investigators

2024-25 Courses

2023-24 Courses

2022-23 Courses

2021-22 Courses

Stanford Advisees