Claire V. Broome

Claire Veronica Broome
Personal details
Born	(1949-08-24) August 24, 1949 (age 75) Tunbridge Wells, UK
Spouse	John Head
Alma mater	Harvard University
Profession	Epidemiologist and physician

Claire Veronica Broome (born August 24, 1949) is an American epidemiologist, specializing in public health surveillance and vaccine evaluation, who has contributed to the development and effective utilization of key vaccines against pathogens causing pneumonia and meningitis. She joined the Centers for Disease Control and served with the CDC for 28 years, eventually holding the positions of deputy director, acting CDC director (1998), and senior advisor for integrated heath information systems. In 1995 she was promoted to assistant surgeon general in the US Public Health Service.

Early life

Claire Broome was born in Tunbridge Wells, England, on August 24, 1949, the daughter of Heather (Platt), a chemist and technical librarian, and Kenneth R. Broome, a civil engineer. The family emigrated to the United States in 1952. She earned a baccalaureate magna cum laude in biochemistry from Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) in 1970, and an MD from Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA) in 1975.

Career

Following a residency in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (1975–77), she joined the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer (1977–79) and served with the CDC for 28 years, eventually holding the positions of deputy director (1994–99), acting CDC director (1998), and senior advisor for integrated heath information systems (2000–06). In 1995 she was promoted to assistant surgeon general in the US Public Health Service.

During this period, Dr. Broome served as a chairperson for the World Health Organization (WHO) Steering Committee for Encapsulated Bacteria, which was responsible for funding and implementing a research portfolio on vaccines needed to prevent bacterial meningitis and pneumonia in developing countries (part of the WHO Programme for Vaccine Development, a predecessor of the CVI and GAVI).

From 1999 to 2006, she led the development and implementation of the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS), a project to transform public health surveillance in the US by electronic transmission of public health relevant clinical lab test results to state public health departments. These systems use the same standards which have been endorsed for clinical Electronic Health records; the majority of states in the country are now implementing one or more NEDSS functions. She also served as CDC's participant in national public private consortia to accelerate standards based Electronic Health Records.

Key scientific contributions

At the CDC, Broome contributed to the understanding of several diseases of high public interest including Legionnaires' Disease,[1][2][3] pneumococcal vaccine evaluation,[4][5] meningococcal disease[6] and Toxic Shock Syndrome.[7][8] Notable accomplishments included development of a new method for observational measurement of the effectiveness of the pneumoccal polysaccharide vaccine (the "indirect cohort" or "Broome" method),[9] which has been used since then to assess serotype specific effectiveness, duration of effectiveness, and effectiveness in groups with underlying disease; designed observational and field trials to evaluate vaccine performance, including sequential case control studies to define duration of meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine effectiveness in Burkina Faso;[10] a cluster randomized trial of Group B meningococcal vaccine efficacy in Cuba; and Haemophilus influenzae type b conjugate vaccine impact on pneumonia in the Gambia; creation of funded population based active surveillance sites for 5 invasive bacterial pathogens (the forerunner of domestic Emerging Infections Programs); and demonstration that epidemic and sporadic listeriosis was a food-borne disease.[11][12]

Awards

Broome was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 1996 (now the National Academy of Medicine). Professional awards include the PHS Distinguished Service Award; the Surgeon General's Medallion; the Infectious Disease Society of America's Squibb Award for Excellence of Achievement in Infectious Diseases; the John Snow Award from the American Public Health Association, Epidemiology Section; 2020 Maxwell Finland Award for Scientific Achievement, National Foundation for Infectious Diseases; 2021 Schneerson-Robbins Prize, 15th Vaccine Congress; Charles Shepard Award 1986; Langmuir Award co-author 1981, 1983, 1988, 1989, 1993.

References

1. Broome CV, Cherry WB, Winn WC Jr, MacPherson BR: Rapid diagnosis of Legionnaires' disease by direct immunofluorescent staining. Ann Intern Med 1979;90:1 4.
2. Broome CV, Goings SAJ, Thacker SB, Vogt RL, Beaty HN, Fraser DW, the Field Investigation Team: the Vermont epidemic of Legionnaires' disease. Ann Intern Med 1979;90:573 576.
3. England AC III, Fraser DW, Plikaytis BD, Tsai TF, Storch G, Broome CV. Sporadic legionellosis in the United States: the first thousand cases. Ann Intern Med 1981;94:164 170.
4. Broome CV, Facklam RR, Austrian R, Allen JR, Fraser DW. Epidemiology of pneumococcal serotypes in the United States, 1978 1979. J Infect Dis 1980;141:119 123.
5. Broome CV, Facklam RR, Fraser DW. Pneumococcal disease after pneumococcal vaccination: an alternative method to estimate the efficacy of pneumococcal vaccine. N Engl J Med 1980;303:549 552.
6. Broome CV, Rugh MA, Yada AA, Giat L, Giat H, Zeltner JM, Sanborn WR, Fraser DW. Epidemic group C meningococcal meningitis in Upper Volta, 1979. Bull World Health Organ 1983;61:325 330.
7. Shands KN, Schmid GP, Dan BB, Blum D, Guidotti RJ, Hargrett NT, Anderson RL, Hill DK, Broome CV, Band JD, Fraser DW. Toxic shock syndrome in menstruating women: association with tampon use and Staphylococcus aureus and clinical features in 52 cases. N Engl J Med 1980;303:1436 1442
8. Reingold AL, Hargrett NT, Shands KN, Dan BB, Schmid GP, Strickland BY, Broome CV. Toxic shock surveillance in the United States, 1980 81. Ann Internal Med 1982;96:875 880.
9. Bolan G, Broome CV, Facklam RR, Plikaytis BD, Fraser DW, Schlech WF. Pneumococcal vaccine efficacy in selected populations in the United States. Ann Intern Med 1986;104:1 6.
10. Reingold AL, Broome CV, Hightower AW, Ajello GW, Bolan GA, Adamsbaum C, Jones EE, Phillips C, Tiendrebeogo H, Yada A. Age specific differences in duration of clinical protection after vaccination with meningococcal polysaccharide A vaccine. The Lancet 1985;ii:114 118.
11. Schlech WF, Lavigne PM, Bortolussi RA, Allen AC, Haldane EV, Wort JA, Hightower AW, King SH, Nicholls ES, Broome CV. Epidemic listeriosis: Evidence for transmission by food. N Engl J Med 1983; 308:203 206.
12. Schuchat A1, Deaver KA, Wenger JD, Plikaytis BD, Mascola L, Pinner RW, Reingold AL, Broome CV. Role of foods in sporadic listeriosis. I. Case-control study of dietary risk factors. The Listeria Study Group.JAMA 1992;267:2041-5.