Professor of Epidemiology
Center for Real-World Effectiveness and Safety of Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania
Sean Hennessy leads the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Pharmacoepidemiology Research and Training (CPeRT). He and his colleagues identified a survival benefit of potassium supplementation in users of loop diuretics, and found that this survival benefit increases with hotter outdoor temperature. They also found that the survival benefit of statins increases with hotter outdoor temperature. Hennessy and his colleagues study serious health consequences of drug-drug interactions involving high-risk drugs including anticoagulants, antidiabetes drugs, and antiplatelet agents. Their research has also produced crucial knowledge about the cardiovascular safety of many widely-used drugs for mental health conditions in including ADHD, depression, and schizophrenia. They developed the trend-in-trend research design for studying the effects of rapidly increasing or declining exposures. Hennessy was the senior author of one of two citizen petitions to the US FDA that led to the re-labeling of metformin, the best-proven therapy for type 2 diabetes, to permit its use in persons with mild to moderate renal insufficiency. Hennessy has served as ISPE scientific program chair, ISPE president, and as Regional Editor for the Americas of the journal Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety.