Henry Kirchner, PhD

H. Lester Kirchner is a biostatistician and health services researcher who has held several leadership roles at Geisinger, including Chair of the Department of Population Health Sciences since 2020. He previously served as Senior Biostatistician in the Medicine Institute and has chaired the Institutional Review Board from 2011–2022 and again beginning in 2025. He also serves on institutional committees, including the College of Health Sciences Appointment and Promotion Committee, and is a co‑faculty advisor for the Geisinger Program Evaluation team.

Dr. Kirschner’s formal training is in biostatistics, with expertise in analyzing electronic health record data, longitudinal and observational studies for causal inference, and the design of pragmatic clustered randomized trials. His research applies biostatistical methods to diabetes surveillance using EHR data, improving familial hypercholesterolemia screening, and addressing pediatric obesity through pragmatic trial designs. He is the site Principal Investigator for the PaTH Clinical Data Research Network, a PCORnet site and co‑Project Lead for Geisinger’s participation in the Health System Implementation Initiative, where he currently serves as a dual PI on the Oncology ePROs project.