News
Welcome! This is the first newsletter of Stanford's newest department, the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health!!!
The Health Services Research faculty, in the former department of Health Research and Policy, has formally joined their health policy colleagues in the division of Primary Care and Outcomes Research in the Department of Medicine.
The Epidemiology and Clinical Research Online Graduate Certificate program has expanded with a course on appraising the quality of research findings taught by John Ioannidis and a course on evaluating the tools used in screening, evaluating, and diagnosing patients taught by Steve Goodman. The certificate program is open to anyone interested in research methodology including study design and measurement, statistical analysis, and interpretation. Read more here.
The department will remain located in the Redwood Building, but the building is scheduled to get renovated in 2020.
The Center for Population Health Sciences has moved to the Stanford Research Park at 1701 Page Mill Road.
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Melissa Bondy, PhD, has been appointed chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, formerly known as the Department of Health Research and Policy.
The appointment took effect on Oct. 1st.
Bondy, who comes to Stanford from Baylor College of Medicine, also will serve in the newly created role of Associate Director for Population Sciences at the Stanford Cancer Institute. In that role, she will spearhead the research enterprise of the institute’s population sciences program, which is designed to reduce the burden of cancer and improve outcomes for patients with cancer. Read more here.
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Julie Parsonnet, Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health and George Deforest Barnett Professor in Medicine (Infectious Diseases), has been elected into the National Academy of Medicine! New members are elected by current members through a process that recognizes individuals who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care, and public health. NAM works alongside the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering to provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation and conduct other activities to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions.
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Steve Goodman received the 2019 Abraham Lilienfeld Award from the American College of Epidemiology (ACE). This award is the ACE’s most prestigious recognition and is given in honor of Abraham Lilienfeld, a pioneer in epidemiology, renowned teacher, and founder of the College. Recipients of this award are senior leaders who have made extraordinary contributions to the field of epidemiology over the course of their careers, through research, scholarship, teaching and mentoring. He was also recognized as a lifetime Honorary Fellow of the College. Read more here.
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Steve Goodman has been appointed the new chair of the PCORI Methodology Committee. The Methodology committee works to define and update methodological standards for patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) and to develop a translation framework to guide the choice of study designs for specific research questions.
Victor Henderson received the title "Honorary Skou Professor" from Aarhus University. The Honorary Skou Professor title was created in honor of Nobel Laureate and Professor Jens Christian Skou (1918-2018) with the aim of recognizing the importance and strengthening research collaborations across national boarders and universities. 47 professors worldwide have received this designation, representing 36 universities and 12 countries; 40 were on hand for inauguration ceremonies on October 8th on the Aarhus University campus.
Lisa Goldman Rosas and Mike Baiocchi have been selected to be inaugural Social X-change Fellows, a program that will support faculty members to work in partnership with the public, private, and social sectors in tackling social problems using human creativity, rigorous evidence, and innovative technology. Lisa will be focused on food insecurity, while Mike will be focused on gender-based violence.
Desiree LaBeaud graduated from the Stanford Leadership Development Program. The program's goal is to develop the leaders needed to implement institutional strategies and meet future challenges in academic medicine.
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Recent Publications
Desiree LaBeaud and colleagues published research in Parasites & Vectors supporting the recent finding that the optimal temperature for malaria transmission is closer to 25 °C as opposed to the earlier predicted temperature of 31 °C.
"Malaria smear positivity among Kenyan children peaks at intermediate temperatures as predicted by ecological models"
Esther John and collaborators published their findings in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention about the accuracy of self-reported family history of breast and other cancers in racial/ethnic minorities.
"Race/ethnicity and accuracy of self-reported female first-degree family history of breast and other cancers in the Northern California Breast Cancer Family Registry"
PhD student Biyao Zou published a paper in the Journal of Infectious Disease about the continued existence of the hepatitis C virus even when the cure is available.
"Prevalence of viremic HCV infection by age, race/ethnicity, birthplace and disease awareness among viremic persons in the U.S., 1999-2016"
Julia Simard, Gary Shaw, and other Stanford affiliates were published in The International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology for their research investigating preterm phenotypes in women with different autoimmune rheumatic diseases in a large population-based cohort.
"Preterm birth phenotypes in women with autoimmune rheumatic diseases: A population based cohort study"
Desiree LaBeaud and associates have created a Zika virus Individual Participant Data database to estimate the relative and absolute risk of congenital Zika syndrome (CZS), identify and explore sources of heterogeneity in those estimates, and develop a risk prediction model to identify the pregnancies at the highest risk of CZS or adverse developmental outcomes.
"Understanding the relation between Zika virus infection during pregnancy and adverse fetal, infant and child outcomes: a protocol for a systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis of longitudinal studies of pregnant women and their infants and children"
Esther John and colleagues published an article in the JNCI Cancer Spectrum exploring the association between oral contraceptive preparation use and breast cancer risk.
"Oral Contraceptive Use and Breast Cancer Risk: Retrospective and Prospective Analyses From a BRCA1 and BRCA2 Mutation Carrier Cohort Study"
Julia Simard, Gary Shaw, and collaborators published research comparing the likelihood of preterm delivery between mothers with and without systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in the American Journal of Perinatology.
"Preterm Delivery Phenotypes in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Pregnancies"
Michelle Odden, her mentee Lindsay Miller (OSU), and colleagues published their findings in the Journal of Hypertension that functional status, assessed by difficulties in activities of daily living, may be a useful measure to identify older adults who are at most risk for cognitive decline associated with high blood pressure.
"The Role of Functional Status on the Relationship between Blood Pressure and Cognitive Decline: The Cardiovascular Health Study"
Desiree LaBeaud, LaBeaud lab member, Amy Krystosik, and others published an article on developing and assessing the utility and feasibility of a geospatial sampling frame to conduct household surveys among a population of mobile pastoralists in a remote region of southwest Ethiopia. This publication can be found in The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
"Making Pastoralists Count: Geospatial Methods for the Health Surveillance of Nomadic Populations"
Esther John and colleagues conducted a GWAS of prostate cancer for Latinos to see if current guiding practices are ideal when Latinos make up <1% of the samples used to create said practices; this research was published in the International Journal of Cancer.
"A genome-wide association study of prostate cancer in Latinos"
Julia Simard, Eleni Linos, and researchers published a letter to the editor in the American Journal of Psychiatry examining the prevalence of peripartum depression, treatments accessed, and stigmatizing views among female physicians.
"High Prevalence of Peripartum Depression Among Physician Mothers: A Cross-Sectional Study"
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New Grants
David Maahs is a PI on a grant awarded by the National Institute Of Diabetes And Digestive And Kidney Diseases to evaluate the efficacy of a therapeutic agent for protecting individuals with Type 1 diabetes and celiac disease from intestinal and symptomatic distress they suffer due to minute ingestion of the gluten protein.
"A Clinical Study of Latiglutenase as a Treatment for Type 1 Diabetics with Celiac Disease"
Michelle Odden is co-PI on a new NIA/NIH grant planning to use regression discontinuity to estimate the effect of statins on dementia risk by leveraging a guideline passed in the United Kingdom in 2008. This study will also examine heterogeneous treatment effects.
"Statins and Dementia Risk: A Novel Quasi-Experimental Approach to Identify Causal Effects"
David Maahs is the PI on a grant focused on the eduation and training of researchers for academic careers in Pediatric and Adult Endocrinology with a specific focus on Type 1 diabetes.
"Training Research Leaders in Type 1 Diabetes"
Tom Robinson is PI on a new grant from the CDC to utilize technology, design, behavioral theory and biomedical business innovation strategies to package and spread the Stanford Pediatric Weight Control Program to reach low-income children and families throughout the U.S.
"Packaging and Spreading the Stanford Pediatric Weight Control Program - A Family-Based, Group, Behavioral Weight Control Program for Children with Obesity and their Families"
Tom Robinson, Manisha Desai, and other Stanford colleagues received a grant from NIH to conduct a randomized controlled trial to test the efficacy of adding innovative “wise” social psychological interventions—growth mindset and self-affirmation—to a usual care family-based, group behavioral intervention for weight control in children with obesity, to reduce body mass index, compared to the behavioral intervention alone.
"Wise Social Psychological Interventions to Improve Outcomes of Behavioral Weight Control in Children with Obesity"
David Maahs is PI on a grant to improve patient-level outcomes for underserved adults and children with Type 1 diabetes in California and Florida.
"Expansion & Evaluation of ECHO for People on Intensive Insulin Therapy"
Meghan Halley, member of Eleni Linos's research team, has been awarded a grant from NCI to try to reduce adverse health effects from early sun exposure.
"Developing a Family-Based Social Media Intervention to Reduce Early Sun Exposure in Children"
The Clinical and Translational Science Award Program with P.I. Mark Cullen was granted to the Stanford School of Medicine a five-year multi-million dollar grant to continue its training programs of clinical/translational scientists and to support the Stanford infrastructure for promoting the highest quality clinical and translational research.
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Student News
Congratulations to the following three Ph.D. candidates for passing their oral qualifying exams!
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Eileen Leary, MS, RPSGT
"Sleep and Death: The Association Between REM Sleep and Mortality"
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Yan Min, MS
"Observational Data and Cardiothoracic Surgery: Outcomes, Policy, and Methodology"
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Katie Watson
"Metabolic Correlates of the Incidence
and Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder"
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Xiaojuan Liu's, MS research interest includes cardiovascular epidemiology, with a focus on risk assessment, disease prevention and prediction based on large longitudinal cohort studies, as well as causal inference, especially adopting cutting edge approaches to simulate randomization and generate causality from observational studies. She also has passion in applying novel biostatistics models to dealing with nonstandard study designs, integrating heterogeneous data and promoting precision medicine.
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Yan Min is extremely passionate about rigorous causal inference theories and applying causal inference models to large-scale observational studies. She currently focuses on constructing a causal model to address the effects of surgeon volumes and hospital volumes on long-term patient outcomes in six cardiothoracic surgery procedures. On the side, she is also having fun in statistical learning and employing bioinformatic methodology to her studies of microbiome, metabolomics, and human health.
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Megan Roche, MD is interested in bone health in athletes, genetic predictors of sports injury, and sports epidemiology. Megan is a five-time trail running national champion and a co-author of the book, “The Happy Runner.” She co-founded Some Work All Play, a coaching group centered around finding long-term fulfillment in the process of running. Megan is pursuing her PhD in Epidemiology and is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Stanford Center on Longevity.
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MD/PhD graduate, Nathan Lo, graduated this past June and is now a resident physician (internal medicine) and public health scientist in global infectious diseases at the University of California, San Francisco. His work draws upon diverse quantitative methodologies to inform policy in global infectious diseases. A large emphasis of his work is translating scientific evidence into public health policy.
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Desiree LaBeaud and the LaBeaud Lab Manager, Elysse Noel Grossi-Soyster, were featured in the 2019 American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (ASTMH) teaser video for their annual meeting in November. ASTMH is the largest international scientific organization of experts dedicated to reducing the worldwide burden of tropical infectious diseases and improving global health. See if you can spot them in the video!
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Epidemiology Seminar Series
Li Ka Shing Center (LKSC), LK120
1:30 - 2:45pm
More Info - Founder and President of Prolepsis Institute of Preventive Medicine; Professor, University of Athens, Medical School
October 29, 2019
"Using Modern Case-Control Designs for Adverse Drug Event Studies"
Janet Tate, MPH, ScD - Assistant Professor of Medicine (General Internal Medicine); Director, VACS Biostatistics Core; Co-Director, VACS ART Workgroup; Co-Director, VACS Risk Index Workgoup at Yale School of Medicine
November 5, 2019
"Impossible Dreams: Everest and Eradicating World Blindness"
Geoffrey Tabin, MD - Professor of Ophthalmology and Global Medicine; Co-Founder and Chairman of the Himalayan Cataract Project
November 12, 2019
Upcoming Related Events
"2nd Annual Colloquium on Population Health & Health Equity: Immigrant Health"
UC, San Francisco
October 23, 2019 9am - 4:30pm
Register here
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Upcoming External Presentations
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Keynote Speaker: Steven Goodman
Bay Area Biotech-Pharma Statistics Workshop
11/7/2019
Foster City, CA
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Recent External Presentations
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Local Events
Contemplation by Design presents:
"PEACE Concert"
An hour "quarter rest" with Stanford musicians
Cellists Dean Lloyd Minor, Provost Persis Drell and MS student Jeffrey Kwong will play in Bachianas Brasileras by Villa-Lobos.
Steven Goodman will perform the duet from Bizet's The Pearl Fishers.
November 7, 2019 at noon |
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In the Media
Kristin Sainani was a guest on the podcast Everything Hertz where she discussed how there are inconsistencies in allowing magnitude based inference in sports medicine research.
Everything Hertz
Victor Henderson expressed his caution in correlating the younger LGBT population's higher rates of cognitive impairment to impending dementia.
Stat News
John Ioannidis is mentioned in an article discussing how nutrition fads are not strongly backed by research as they are conducted through observational studies instead of reproducible randomized trials.
PBS
New York Times
Allison Kurian and her colleagues found that not all women with breast or ovarian cancer are being advised about genetic testing to determine whether they have cancer-related genetic mutations.
Stanford News
Abby King was mentioned in an article about how to collect an analyze the effects of light-intensity activities in relation to mortality.
New York Times
Eleni Linos's research on the increased likelihood of indoor tanning salons being located in gay neighborhoods suggests the question if this demographic, already with higher rates of skin cancer, is being targeted.
Stanford Medicine News
Newsweek
Lisa Goldman Rosas commented in a piece about the relation between the increase of customers buying groceries at drugstores and the higher consumption of processed food, especially in low-income and racial/minority neighborhoods.
The Guardian
Steve Goodman is mentioned in an article about where to measure the successes (or failures) of vitamin C in patients with sepsis.
NPR
Victor Henderson comments about the changed views in Alzheimer's disease treatment in an article about an on-going study at Roper Hospital testing a drug in the FDA's investigational period.
The Post and Courier
Abby King addresses how to get adults and children more active in their everyday lives to improve health.
Scope
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