Biography
I received my BA in psychology in 2002 from Wesleyan University, MPH in Epidemiology & Biostatistics in 2007 and PhD in Biostatistics with a Designated Emphasis in Genomic & Computational Biology from UC Berkeley in 2011. My PhD adviser was Dr. Alan Hubbard and I worked in the lab of Dr. Lisa Barcellos studying machine learning methods for genome wide association studies.
In 2011 I joined the newly formed Quantitative Sciences Unit in the Department of Medicine at Stanford University. I worked as a collaborative biostatistician on a range of clinical projects. Through this work I developed an interest in the use of Electronic Health Records. Under the primary mentorship of Dr. Wolfgang Winkelmayer I received an NIH K25 career development award focused on the use of EHR to develop clinical risk models.
In 2014 I joined the faculty of Duke University in the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics as well as the Duke Clinical Research Institute. I was one of the original members of the DCRI Center for Predictive Medicine. In 2018 I was named the Data Science Lead for the newly formed Children’s Health & Discovery Initiative. In 2019 I was appointed Associate Professor of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics. In 2023 I was named Director of Data Science for Duke AI Health and the Associate Chief Data Scientist for DUHS. In 2024, I was named Division Chief for the Division of Translational Biomedical Informatics. I have secondary appointments in the departments of Population Health Sciences and Pediatrics.
My research focuses on the meaningful use of EHRs both for the purpose of risk prediction and causal inference and sits at the intersection of biostatistics, informatics, machine learning and epidemiology. I study how the way people interact with the health care system can bias EHR based studies – something we’ve term informed presence. I also apply machine learning methods to understand patient’s evolving health trajectories captured in EHR data. I have a strong interest in making EHR data easily and reliably available to researchers and have worked to develop the Clinical Research DataMart (CRDM) to support research activities at Duke. I enjoy collaborating with clinical researchers and other methodologists on projects related to EHR data.
On a translational side, I have a strong interest in using health data to better inform clinical practice and decision making – the Learning Healthcare System. I work closely with members of Duke University Health System on quality improvement initiatives. In particular I help develop, evaluate and implement clinical decision support (CDS) tools. I serve as the co-chair of the evaluation committee for the Algorithm Based Clinical Decision Support (ABCDS) governance committee.
In my free time I enjoy cooking and spending time with my wife and two boys. I always look for opportunities to travel and explore new parts of the world.
Curriculum Vitae