Dr. Harper is an internationally known researcher, clinician and educator in the field of HPV associated diseases, especially focused on the prevention of cervical cancer. She completed her undergraduate and graduate degrees at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts, in the fields of Chemical Engineering and Polymerics. She received her medical degree from the University of Kansas in Kansas City, where she also did residencies in OB/GYN and Family Medicine. She attended Stanford University, studying Medical Decision Making/Cost Effectiveness Analysis as her Master’s of Public Health thesis.
She has developed and directs the Gynecologic Cancer Prevention Research Group, originally at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center at Dartmouth Medical School, in which work on all aspects of HPV associated diseases, specifically cervical cancer prevention, is conducted both on protocol and clinically.
Dr. Harper helped establish the US national guidelines for the nomenclature of cytology, and the screening and management of abnormal cytology and histology reports (Bethesda 2001, ACS Cervical Cancer Screening Guidelines; ASCCP/NCI Consensus Conference on the Management of Cytologic and Histologic Abnormalities).
Dr. Harper has published over 100 articles in such peer-reviewed journals as The Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, Vaccine, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, and Annals of Family Medicine. Dr. Harper serves as a journal referee for The Lancet, Lancet Oncology, Lancet Infectious Diseases, Journal of the American Medical Association, New England Journal of Medicine, Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, Cancer: Interdisciplinary International Journal of the American Cancer Society, and Evidence Based Medicine-Cochran Reviews, among others.
Dr. Harper has received numerous regional and national teaching awards over the past twenty years. She was honored as teacher of the year at Dartmouth in 2005 and has been teacher of the year at UMKC for the past three years running. She was the New Hampshire Family Physician of the Year in 2006. She is an active faculty role model for the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. Her research has received honors from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in the US as well as the Distinguished Scientist Award from the European Gynecologic Societies. In addition, her outstanding clinical skills are recognized by the multiple men and women who seek her care from throughout the world.
Dr. Diane Harper has posted a video: