Joanne Laffan, MBS

Joanne Laffan, MBS, is the Administrative Director for the Smith Center for Outcomes Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.  Joanne completed her degrees in Business at Dublin City University, Ireland, and worked in Dublin, San Francisco and Sydney in various business analyst roles and industries before moving to Boston in 2002.  Joanne found her way into clinical research working in clinical research coordination and data management in Cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital. Joanne spent 13 years at MGH, which culminated in her role as the Clinical Research Manager for the Division of Cardiology, a role she developed alongside Cardiology leadership. 

In 2016, Joanne was asked to join BIDMC by Dr. Robert Yeh, Director of the newly founded Smith Center for Outcomes Research.  The Smith Center was a small research operation being incubated at the outset, with just 2 investigators, 2 staff, 1 fellow, a part-time biostatistician and a large philanthropic donation to seed their growth.  Now it spans 84 team members, including 14 full time investigators, 11 full time biostatisticians, and 32 active trainees. Over the past decade, Joanne has worked tirelessly with the investigators to grow and shape the Center, working in tandem with the research enterprise at BIDMC.  She leads research staff across 9 sections within the center and continually seeks opportunities for the Smith Center to grow and develop apace continual changes in research operations and environment both locally and nationally.