David E Clark MD

Division of Trauma and Surgical Critical Care, Department of Surgery
Maine Medical Center
(207) 774-2381 Office
(207) 774-0459 Fax
clarkd@mmc.org

Biosketch

After graduating from Dartmouth College and George Washington University Medical School, Dr. Clark completed the Maine Medical Center surgical residency in 1980.  He was a Trauma Fellow at the University of Maryland for a year, then rejoined the MMC surgical staff and developed its trauma service.  After ten years of practice, he returned to academics, receiving degrees in statistics from USM and public health from Harvard in 1995.  He has continued surgical practice, while also remaining a core faculty member with the Harvard Injury Control Research Center.  Dr. Clark is currently an active member of the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma. 

Research Interests

Dr. Clark’s research interests have gradually expanded from the clinical care of injured patients, to the evaluation of trauma care systems, to studies on injury epidemiology and prevention.  He has also explored various methodologic issues that arise from these subjects.  Current projects include analysis of the outcomes of older patients using Medicare data, evaluation of hospital care using the National Trauma Data Bank, and explanation of regional differences in injury epidemiology using a variety of national population-based data.

Selected Publications

Clark DE, Cushing BM.  Predicted effect of automatic crash notification on traffic mortality.  Accid Anal Prev 2002; 34:103-109

Clark DE, Ryan LM.  Concurrent prediction of hospital mortality and length of stay from risk factors on admission.  Health Services Research 2002; 37:631-645

Clark DE.  Trauma system evaluation using the Fatality Analysis Reporting System. 
J Trauma 2003; 54:1199-1204

Clark DE.  Effect of population density on mortality after motor vehicle collisions.  Accid Anal Prev 2003; 35:965-971

Shinoda-Tagawa T, Clark DE.  Trends in hospitalization after injury:  Older women are displacing young men.  Inj Prev 2003; 9:214-219

Clark DE, Winchell RJ.  Risk adjustment for injured patients using administrative data. 
J Trauma 2004; 57:130-140

Clark DE, DeLorenzo MA, Lucas FL, Wennberg DE.  Epidemiology and short-term outcomes of injured Medicare patients.  J Amer Geriatric Soc 2004; 52:2023-2030

Clark DE, Cushing BM.  Rural and urban traffic fatalities, vehicle miles, and population density.  Accid Anal Prev 2004; 36:967-972

Clark DE, DeLorenzo MA, Lucas FL, Wennberg DE.  Injuries in older Americans with and without Medicare.  Amer J Pub Health 2005; 95:273-278

Clark DE, Ahmad S.  Is the number of traffic fatalities in American hospitals decreasing?  Accid Anal Pre 2005; 37:755-760

Clark, DE, Ahmad S.  Estimating injury severity using the Berell matrix.  Inj Prev 2006; 12:111-116