Hiroko Dodge, PhD
Faculty of Neurology, Harvard Medical School
​
Hiroko Dodge joined Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in October 2022. Before the transition, she was a Professor of Neurology and Co-Associate Director for the NIH-Layton Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease Center (ADC) at Oregon Health & Science University. She also directed the ADC's Biostatistics and Data Management Core for over 15 years. Between 2009 and 2019, she simultaneously directed the Data Core at Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Center at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, MI, where she served as the endowed Professor of Neurology.
In addition to her statistical expertise, her research interests cover a wide range of areas, including behavioral intervention against cognitive decline, epidemiology of dementia and cross-cultural comparisons of healthy cognitive aging. Over the past ten years, she has conducted a series of randomized NIH-funded behavioral intervention trials to examine whether social interactions through the internet/webcams can improve cognitive functions.
She recently completed an NIH-funded R01 study named Internet-based Conversational Engagement Clinical Trial (www.i-conect.org). The project recruited socially isolated older adults (aged 75 and over), a group rarely included in clinical trials, collaborating with Meals on Wheels programs and other organizations. She also has been actively conducting research in Japan: she has a research cohort of healthy older old in Okinawa, Japan, who have been followed since 2007, collaborating with the Okinawa Centenarian Study. This cohort has been providing opportunities for researchers to examine factors associated with healthy cognitive aging. ​ ​
​
She is the founding chair of a Professional Interest Area (PIA) entitled “Clinical Trials Advancements and Outcomes” in the International Society to Advance Alzheimer’s Research (ISTAART, an international AD research organization sponsored by the Alzheimer’s Association). This PIA creates an international researchers’ forum where innovative clinical trial approaches, developments of outcomes sensitive to trial effects, and unique non-pharmacological trials are introduced and discussed. She holds Fellow status at the Gerontological Society of America and is a statistical and senior editor for multiple dementia journals.
​
Research Interests
-
​Preventions against cognitive decline and dementia (pharmacological and behavioral)​
-
Early detections of Alzheimer’s Disease/ Normal cognitive aging
-
Longitudinal data analysis
-
Epidemiology of dementia and mild cognitive impairment
-
Cross national comparisons on factors associated with healthy cognitive aging
-
Application of demographic methods to clinical research
-
Social Epidemiology
​
Credentials
-
​BA, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University, Tokyo, Japan
-
MA, Demography and Statistics, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA
-
Ph.D., Demography and Statistics, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA
Additional Information