Before coming to Health Decisions in 1995, Dr. Higgins served as Global Director of Biostatistical Operations and Director of Biostatistics for ClinTrials Research. Earlier he served as Senior Researcher and Director of Biostatistics for Family Health International, where he developed materials to train physicians and their support staffs to conduct clinical trials of contraceptives.

Dr. Higgins received a PhD in Biostatistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1978. In addition, he holds an MS in Operations Research from Cornell University (1969) and a BS in Industrial Engineering from North Carolina State University (1967). He has published more than 30 articles in medical journals and is co-author of An Epidemiologic Approach to Reproductive Health, published by the World Health Organization, the core text for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention training workshops in reproductive health epidemiology. In keeping with his studies in operations research, Dr. Higgins has long had an interest in the efficiency of clinical trials, including writing a chapter in Welling, Lasagna, and Banakar's The Drug Development Process: Increasing Efficiency and Cost-effectiveness.