On Thursday, May 3, 2018, I defended my doctoral dissertation research in The Comparative Health Outcomes, Policy, and Economics (CHOICE) Institute at the University of Washington and became a doctor.
Introducing the context for my research during the one-hour lecture.My generous mother, Lisa McLoughlin, prepared a delicious spread of food that was enjoyed before and after the talk. The menu included beet tartare on endive leaves, hard and soft cheeses, grand central bakery baguettes, roasted almond date spread, prosciutto, salami, olives, vegetable cups with green goddess dressing, grapes, strawberries, spindrift sparkling waters, fresh kettle corn, cream puffs, truffles, and homemade nordie bars.
Mathematical Models
This schematic represents the deterministic dynamic compartmental model. The boxes represent disease-stage compartments of men who have sex with men and the arrows represent transitions between compartments. Individuals enter into the unvaccinated population and may die or exit the population at various disease stages. Not represented in the diagram is stratification by age group (15-24, 24-44, and 45-64 years), risk group (low and high), and sexual role (anal insertive, receptive, or versatile). S, susceptible; SP, susceptible using PrEP; SPV, susceptible using PrEP and partial protection with HIV vaccine; SV, susceptible with partial protection from HIV vaccine; I, infected and unaware; D, diagnosed; E, engaged in care but not using ART; U, engaged in care and using ART but not yet virally suppressed; T, engaged in care and virally suppressed on ART.
Interrogation
Responding to difficult questions from committee members during the private interrogation period.
The priviledge to ask and answer my own scientific questions was only possible because of the dedicated professors and mentors who gifted me with hours, sweat, code, advice, dark chocolate, homework, corrections, inspiration, and affirmation. I will be forever grateful.
Dissertation Committee members (left to right): Jim Kublin, Josh Carlson, Lou Garrison, me, Ruanne Barnabas, and Dobromir Dimitrov.
Celebration
I celebrated later that evening with a massive delivery of Chinese food from Snappy Dragon that was enjoyed with a glass of Veuve Clicquot while lounging on my living room floor and surrounded by my closest friends and our dozen children.
Beautiful view from the room where I defended my dissertation in the WRF Data Science Studio on the top floor of the Physics and Astronomy building at the University of Washington.Graduation portrait credit to Rahil Jain, PhD.
The Flatiron study is proof of principle that real world evidence can be used to examine and inform health policy interventions, said Zafar, who led a discussion of Adamson’s study at the ASCO plenary session.
Want to join our book club? We’re reading the new Causal Inference Book by Miguel Hernan and James Robins. The book is forthcoming publication by Chapman & Hall/CRC and it is available for FREE right now to download from Harvard. Every few weeks my colleagues and I meet up to discuss a few chapters. We…
Kangho Suh wrote an excellent article on the use of instrumental variables in healthcare. I agree this technique strengthens causal inference for analyses of observational data. This is even more important when a randomized controlled trial is not feasible or ethical. SaveSave
Failure to consider these methods could result in unintended consequences and exacerbate existing inequalities in health between patients who are “average” and “outliers.”
@AcademyHealth #ARM2018 attendees: join me on Monday at 3:15 pm in room 605-606, where Anirban Basu will present our work in collaboration with the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to quantify the potential economic impact of the findings from comparative-effectiveness research studies. Goal Our goal was to understand the potential benefits of implementing comparative-effectiveness…
It has been a privilege to serve and represent more than 5,000 health economics graduate students in 77 countries and support the work of presidents from 107 student chapters during my term as Chair of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) Student Network in 2017-2018. Where We Are Today I continue to be…
