Associate Professor

Academic Degrees

• MD
• MS

Departmental Affiliation

• Name:

  Epidemiology

  Affiliation Type:

  Primary

Departmental Address

Contact Information

Email:

galexand@jhsph.edu

Phone:

410 955 8168

Fax:

410 955 0863

Link:

Personal Website

Research and Professional Experience

Dr. Alexander is a practicing general internist and pharmacoepidemiologist who is nationally renowned for his work examining prescription drug utilization.  He is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Epidemiology and Medicine and co-Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Drug Safety and Effectiveness.  His work focuses on population-based patterns and determinants of pharmaceutical use, clinical decision-making regarding prescription drugs, and the impact of changes in regulatory and payment policy on pharmaceutical utilization.  In addition to expertise conducting survey-based investigations, Dr. Alexander has also extensive experience with the analysis of secondary data sources including administrative claims, the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. Dr. Alexander is the author of more than one hundred peer-reviewed publications and is an ad hoc member of the FDA Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee.  He is currently the Principal or Co-Principal Investigator of RO1s from the AHRQ and the NHLBI that examine the effect of FDA regulatory communications and direct-to-consumer advertising on prescription and non-prescription health care utilization.

Dr. Alexander has served on numerous editorial boards including Medical Care, Medical Decision Making, American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy and the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Research Interests: prescription drugs; drug utilization; drug safety; drug effectiveness; pharmacoepidemiology; pharmaceutical policy

Honors and Awards

Honors

1993 Cum Laude, University of Pennsylvania

1997 Alpha Omega Alpha, Case Western Reserve University

2003-2005  John A. Oremus Memorial Scholar ($40,000 Research Stipend), MacLean Center for Medical Ethics, University of Chicago

2006 Top 5% of reviewers, Medical Care (also received annually through 2011)

2007 Top 10% of reviewers, Ann Intern Med (also received annually through 2009)

2011 Elected Fellow of the American College of Physicians (FACP)

Awards

2001 Edward W. Holmes Resident Research Award, University of Pennsylvania

2006-2009  Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Faculty Scholar

2007 Research Finalist, International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research, Annual Meeting

2008 Outstanding Physician Scientist Award, Central Society for Clinical Research

2008 Career development award ($10,000 Research Stipend), Central Society for Clinical Research

2008 Department of Medicine Research Award (awarded to trainee for mentored research; also received by mentored trainees in 2009 and 2010)

2009 Pritzker School of Medicine Sigma Xi Award for Impact on Science (awarded to trainee for mentored research)

Selected Publications

Selected from 104 total peer-reviewed publications

1. Alexander GC, Kruszewski SP, Webster DW.   Rethinking Opioid Prescribing to Protect Patient Safety and Public Health.  JAMA.  In press.
2. Alexander GC, Lambert BL.  Is Treatment Heterogeneity an Achilles’ Heel for Comparative Effectiveness Research?  Pharmacotherapy.  2012;32:583-585.
3. Kirley K, Qato DM, Kornfield R, Stafford RS, Alexander GC.  National trends in oral anticoagulant use in the United States, 2007-2011.  Circulation: Cardiovascular Outcomes and Quality.  2012;5:615-621.
4. Pham-Kanter G, Alexander GC, Nair K.  Effect of financial disclosure laws on physician prescribing.  Archives of Internal Medicine.  2012;172:819-821.
5. Dusetzina SB, Higashi A (*co-first author), Dorsey ER, Conti R, Huskamp HA, Zhu S, Garfield CF, Alexander GC.  Impact of FDA risk communications on health care utilization and health behaviors: a systematic review.  Medical Care.  2012;50:466-78.
6. Ross JS, Jackevicius CA, Krumholz HM, Ridgeway JL, Montori VM, Alexander GC, Zerzan JT, Fan J, Shah ND.  State Medicaid Programs Did Not Make Use Of Prior Authorization To Promote Safer Prescribing After Rosiglitazone Warning.  Health Affairs.  2012;31:188-98.
7. Qato DM, Alexander GC. Post-Marketing Drug Safety and the Food and Drug Administration’s Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies.  JAMA.  2011;306:1595-1596. 
8. Alexander GC, O’Connor AB, Stafford RS.  Enhancing prescription drug innovation and adoption.  Annals of Internal Medicine.  2011;154:833-837.  PMID: 21690598
9. Alexander GC, Gallagher SA, Mascola A, Moloney RM, Stafford RS.  Increasing off-label use of antipsychotic medicines, 1995-2008.  Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety.  2011;20:177-84.  PMCID: PMC3069498
10. Shah ND, Montori VM, Krumholz HM, Tu K, Alexander GC, Jackevicius CA. Geographic Variation in the Response to FDA Boxed Warnings for Rosiglitazone.  N Engl J Med.   2010;22:2081-2084.  PMID: 21083379
11. Qato DM, Lindau ST, Conti RM, Schumm P, Alexander GC. Racial and ethnic disparities in cardiovascular medication use among older adults in the United States. Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety.  2010;19:834-842.  PMID: 20681002
12. Cohen A, Rabbani A, Shah N, Alexander GC.  Changes in glitazone use among office-based physicians in the United States, 2003-2009.  Diabetes care.  2010;33:823-825.  PMCID: PMC2845035
13. Basu A, Yin W, Alexander GC. The impact of Medicare Part D on Medicare-Medicaid dual-eligible beneficiaries’ prescription utilization and expenditures. Health Services Research.  2010;45:133-151.  (NBER Working Paper #W14413)  PMID: 20002765
14. Dorsey R, Rabbani A, Gallagher SA, Conti R, Alexander GC.  The impact of black box warnings on the use of atypical antipsychotic medicines.  Archives of Internal Medicine.  2010;170:96-103.   PMID 20065205 
15. Caskey R, Lindau ST, Alexander GC.  Knowledge and early adoption of the HPV vaccine among adolescent girls and young women: results of a national survey.  Journal of Adolescent Health.  2009;45:453-462.  PMID: 19837351
16. Chen DT, Wynia MK, Moloney RM, Alexander GC.  Physician knowledge of the FDA-approved indications of commonly prescribed drugs: results of a national survey.  Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety.  2009;18:1094-100.  PMID: 19697444
17. Alexander GC, Stafford RS.  Does comparative effectiveness have a comparative edge?  JAMA.  2009;301:2488-2490. PMID 19531789 
18. Qato DM, Alexander GC, Conti RM, Johnson M, Schumm P, Lindau ST.  Use of prescription and over-the-counter medicines and dietary supplements among older adults in the United States: findings from a population-based study.  JAMA.  2008;300:2867-2878.  PMCID: PMC2702513
19. Walton SM, Schumock GT, Lee KV, Alexander GC, Meltzer D, Stafford RS. Prioritizing medications for policy and research initiatives examining off-label prescribing.  Pharmacotherapy.  2008;28:1443-1452.  PMID: 19025425
20. Alexander GC, Sehgal NL, Moloney RM, Stafford RS.  National trends in treatment for Type 2 diabetes mellitus, 1994-2007.  Archives of Internal Medicine.  2008;168:2088-2094.  PMCID: PMC2868588
21. Zhang J, Yin W, Sun S, Alexander GC. Impact of the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit on the use of generic drugs.  Journal of General Internal Medicine. 2008;23:1673-1678.  PMCID: PMC2533371
22. Alexander GC, Zhang J, Basu A. Characteristics of patients receiving pharmaceutical samples and association between sample receipt and out-of-pocket prescription costs.  Medical Care.  2008;46:394-402. PMID 18362819
23. Yin W, Basu A, Zhang J, Rabbani A, Meltzer DO, Alexander GC.  Impact of the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Benefit on drug utilization and out-of-pocket expenditures. Annals of Internal Medicine.  2008;148:169-177. PMID: 1818046
24. Wang YR, Alexander GC, Stafford RS.  Outpatient treatment and control of hypertension in Western Europe and the United States.  Archives of Internal Medicine. 2007;167:141-147. 
25. Alexander GC, Sayla MA, Holmes HM, Sachs GA.  Prioritizing and stopping prescription medicines.  Canadian Medical Association Journal.  2006;174:1083-1084.  PMCID: PMC142147
26. Holmes HM, Cox-Hayley DM, Alexander GC, Sachs GA.  Reconsidering medication appropriateness for patients late in life.  Archives of Internal Medicine.  2006;166:605-609.