Blythe Adamson, PhD, MPH
Infectious disease epidemiologist and economist accelerating the development of valuable drugs, vaccines, and public health policy
Where I work: I am an Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington in the Comparative Health Outcomes, Policy and Economics (CHOICE) Institute, a Principal Scientist at Flatiron Health in New York City, and a COVID-19 expert at Testing for America. I also advise and generate evidence for governments, industry, academic institutions, and non-profit organizations.Â
What I do: To inform decisions I compare the effectiveness of treatments and interventions, mathematically model disease progression and transmission, analyze electronic health records and wearable data, design healthcare resource allocation strategies, and develop novel research methods using natural language processing and machine learning. Business Insider recently recognized me as one of the Top 30 Leaders Transforming Healthcare.
Tools and skills used: I code in R, Python, C++, Stata, Visual Basic, and JSON. Mathematical modeling methods include dynamic transmission, Markov, decision trees, machine learning, natural language processing (NLP), discrete event simulation, and Monte Carlo probabilistic sensitivity analyses.
Experience: I was a researcher for over a decade at the HIV Vaccine Trials Network, based at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. I have designed and built mathematical models for Boston Scientific, the Institute for Disease Modeling, Intellectual Ventures, and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). I co-founded SmartDx, an award-winning infectious disease diagnostic platform to support clinical decision-making with predictive patient risk factors and real-time big-data analytics. I was past global chair of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) student network, where I led >5,000 graduate students in 37 countries, equipped 110 presidents of university chapters, and facilitated 10 committees to strengthen the next generation of health economists.
Training: I have a PhD in pharmaceutical science and health economics from The Comparative Health Outcomes, Policy & Economics (CHOICE) Institute at the University of Washington, advised by Professor Emeritus Louis Garrison, and a masters in public health (MPH) in epidemiology, advised by Drs. James Kublin and Peter Gilbert at the University of Washington.
Learn more
- Follow @InfectiousEcon and @DrBlytheAdamson
- Publications and Google Scholar profile
- Press, honors and awards
- LinkedIn, short resume, and full CV
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Contact me