Academic Background

Doctorate

PhD, Johns Hopkins University
School of Hygiene and Public Health, 1978

Fellowship

Postdoctoral fellow in Cardiovascular Epidemiology
Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health

Robert J. Goldberg, Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology
Director of Masters of Science and Clinical Investigation Program
Areas of interest: cardiovascular epidemiology, preventive cardiology, epidemiology

Clinical/Research Interests

Dr. Goldberg is presently serving, or has recently served, as the Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-PI of several NHLBI funded population-based chronic disease surveillance studies that either have been, or are presently being carried out, in the metropolitan Worcester population of central Massachusetts. These large observational studies include the Worcester Heart Attack Study, the Worcester Heart Failure Study, and the Worcester Venous Thromboembolism Study. Dr. Goldberg has been responsible for the overall design, collection, and analysis of data from the systematic review of hospital and ambulatory care records in these community-wide studies of residents of central Massachusetts who have been either hospitalized for these conditions at all greater Worcester medical centers or treated on an outpatient basis during varying study years. We have been continuously funded by the NHLBI for more than 35 years to conduct population-based surveillance of acute coronary disease in the central Massachusetts population, namely the Worcester Heart Attack Study, producing more than 140 peer reviewed manuscripts from this community-based study, and identifying areas in need for the more effective secondary prevention of patients hospitalized with acute myocardial infarction. Dr. Goldberg served as one of the key co-investigators on the recently completed NHLBI funded multi-site project that described the natural history and transitions of post-discharge care in a cohort of approximately 2,200 black, hispanic, and white patients hospitalized with an acute coronary syndrome at six medical centers in Massachusetts and Georgia (TRACE-CORE). Dr. Goldberg is presently participating on a federally funded longitudinal study (SAGE-AF) that is examining the role of anticoagulant therapy in older patients with atrial fibrillation by assessing often neglected information (e.g., cognitive function, risk of falls) for purposes of enhancing treatment decision making in these high-risk patients.  Dr. Goldberg teaches a year-long course in scientific writing to graduate students enrolled in our program in Clinical and Population Health Research and has served as the Director of the Master of Science in Clinical Investigation program at the UMMS since its inception 11 years ago.