david h roberts

David Roberts, MD

Steven P. Simcox, Patrick A. Clifford, and James H. Higby Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School
Dean for External Education at Harvard Medical School

Dr. David H. Roberts is the Steven P. Simcox, Patrick A. Clifford, and James H. Higby Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS), and the inaugural Dean for External Education at HMS.  David is developing and implementing innovative educational programs for learners around the globe leveraging new technologies and advances in learning sciences. 

David and his External Education team have created a paradigm-shifting new online learning platform called HMX which is now in use at more than 20 medical schools nationally and internationally.  Additionally, David has led the transformation of Harvard Health Publishing (HHP) to digital and multi-media publishing with now over 2.3 million Twitter (Harvard Health) followers and more than 10 million unique monthly visits to the HHP website.  Post-graduate Medical Education is the arm of External Education that has created new and innovative programs for physician-focused training including 3 new master’s degrees, live and online continuing medical education programs, and longitudinal, hybrid learning certificate programs.  Finally, David and his colleagues have created a novel set of executive education programs for business leaders to learn about actual delivery of modern healthcare. 

Since 2001, David has been a pulmonary and critical care physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and an award-winning educator of medical students, residents, fellows, and faculty.  David completed the Rabkin Fellowship in Medical Education and he previously directed both HMS preclinical courses and the BIDMC Principal Clinical Experience. He is both a member and the former associate director of the faculty development-focused Academy at HMS.

David earned his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry, graduating summa cum laude, from Cornell University.  He went on to complete medical training at HMS, internal medicine training at Massachusetts General Hospital, and a pulmonary and critical care fellowship in the Harvard Combined Program. David is in the second class of the Aspen Health Innovators Fellowship.