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Vanderbilt Biostatistics at JSM 2024

Peg Duthie, senior program manager
July 17, 2024

The 2024 Joint Statistical Meetings, which convene in Portland, Oregon, from August 3 through August 8, are expected to bring together more than five thousand attendees from fifty-two countries, with the theme of "Statistics and data science: Informing policy and countering misinformation." We are proud of the department members, trainees, and alumni who will be sharing their work and ideas with colleagues from around the world, as well as participating in assorted research and professional service activities. This year's program includes the following:

 

Sunday, August 4 

DEPICT: A framework for ethical reasoning for statistics and data science - half-day course taught by associate professor Mario Davidson. 8:30 am – noon.

 

Modern statistical methods for image analysis - contributed papers session chaired by associate professor Simon Vandekar. 2:00–3:50 pm.

The talks in this session include Semiparametric confidence sets for arbitrary effect sizes in longitudinal neuroimaging, with PhD student Xinyu Zhang as first and presenting author. Co-authors include recent graduate Kenneth Liao (MS 2024), with Vandekar plus colleagues at VUMC and the University of Colorado.

 

Life before and after COVID-19: Changes in relationships, technology use, and well-being - presentation during the contributed speed session SPEED 1: Data challenge 1, statistical applications & statistics in policy, part 1. 2:00–3:50 pm. 

  • Presenting author: biostatistician and alumna Caroline Birdrow (MS 2021)
  • First author: PhD candidate Jiangmei Xiong
  • Co-author: PhD candidate Maximilian Rohde

This speed session also features a paper co-authored by PhD student Yunbi Nam as a MS student at University of Washington.

 

Advances in functional and spatial data analysis and their applications in biomedical sciences, a contributed papers session, includes a paper co-authored by Vandekar.

 

Statistical innovations in electronic health records data analysis, a topic-contributed paper session, includes a talk by associate professor Dandan Liu. 4:00–5:00 pm. 

 

Invited E-Poster Session I (8:30–9:25 pm) includes these presentations by alumni: 

 

Monday, August 5
Recent advances in design and analysis of two-phase studies - invited paper session. 8:30–10:20 am.

 

Recent advances in the analysis of fMRI data - contributed papers session chaired by assistant professor Panpan Zhang. 8:30–10:20 am.

 

The Contributed poster presentations: ENAR session includes Artificial intelligence for improved patient outcomes. 10:30–11:15 am.

  • First and presenting author: lead biostatistician Henry Domenico
  • Co-authors: senior biostatistician and alumnus Ryan Moore (MS 2020) and former senior associate Daniel Byrne

 

The Contributed poster presentations: Biometrics Section session includes Increasing statistical efficiency using ordinal transition models: A simulation study. 2:00–3:50 pm.

  • First and presenting author: PhD candidate Maximilian Rohde
  • Co-authors: professors Benjamin French and Frank Harrell

 

New considerations for the four pillars of survival analysis: Estimands, design, estimation, and inference, a contributed papers session, includes a talk co-authored by professor Qingxia Chen.

 

The invited panel for Synthetic data in preserving privacy: Connections across federal statistics and health data includes Accenture Professor Bradley Malin. 2:00–3:50 pm.

 

The Student Paper Award and John M. Chambers Statistical Software Award topic-contributed paper session is chaired by Sarah Lotspeich. 2:00–3:50 pm.

 

Simon Vandekar is coordinating a get-together for department members, trainees, and alumni at JSM. It will take place at 6 pm. Contact him for details.

 

Tuesday, August 6
The Contributed poster presentations: Section on Statistics in Genomics and Genetics session includes Facilitating valid statistical inference in biomedical image synthesis. 10:30 am – 12:20 pm.

  • First and presenting author: PhD candidate Jiangmei Xiong
  • Co-authors: associate professor Simon Vandekar, assistant professor Siyuan Ma, and colleagues at VUMC, Regeneron, and GSK

 

Opportunities and challenges in data sciences with diverse imaging technology, an invited paper session, includes Effect sizes and replicability in longitudinal studies of brain-phenotype associations. 11:35–11:55 am.

  • Speaker: Simon Vandekar
  • Co-authors include PhD candidates Kaidi Kang and Jiangmei Xiong, PhD student Megan Jones, professor Jonathan Schildcrout, and associate professor Ran Tao, with colleagues at Vanderbilt, Cambridge, Penn, and Minnesota.

 

The analytical staff plans to gather for happy hour at Deschutes Brewery Portland (210 NW 11th Avenue) at 5:30 pm. According to organizer Andrew Guide, "It's about a 15-minute train ride from the convention center and pretty close to some of the downtown hotels. Feel free to bring significant others or anyone else you may be traveling with." 

 

During the ASA President's Address and Awards, professor Fei Ye will be inducted as an ASA Fellow. 8:00–9:00 pm.

 

Wednesday, August 7

SPEED 8: Survival outcomes, network analyses, and 'omics applications, part 1 includes these presentations by our students:

Role play for training effective statistical leadership, communication, and collaboration - Mario Davidson, invited panelist. 10:30 am – 12:20 pm

 

Future of statistics and data science in the era of ChatGPT and LLMs - Siyuan Ma, chair/moderator of invited panel. 10:30 am – 12:20 pm

 

Thursday, August 8

Crafting relevant research: Informative and translational statistics for public policy - invited panel organized by PhD candidate Tianyi Sun. 10:30 am – 12:20 pm

 

The Techniques and case studies to address missing data complications in scientific studies contributed papers session includes Predicting risk for a new patient with missing risk factor: A submodel approach for binary outcome. 10:30 am – 12:20 pm

  • First and presenting author: Tianyi Sun
  • Co-authors include associate professor Dandan Liu, plus colleagues at VUMC

 

The Advances in modern logitudinal data analysis and applications contributed papers session includes a talk co-authored by Sarah Lotspeich. 

 

Also...

 

Congratulations and best wishes to everyone participating in the conference - we look forward to hearing about your experience, and to welcoming JSM attendees to Nashville in 2025!

 

Yajing Li promoted to senior biostatistician

Peg Duthie, senior program manager
July 3, 2024

We are pleased to announce the promotion of Yajing Li to senior biostatistician, in effect as of June 28. Li earned a bachelor's degree in statistics at East China Normal University in Shanghai, followed by her MS in statistics at the University of Michigan. Since joining our department in 2021, Li has contributed her analytical expertise to studies of the correlation between genetic/environmental factors and the risk of clonal hematopoiesis (CH) transformation; the likelihood of CH mutations among patients undergoing radiation therapy; genotypic-phenotypic links; the interplay between JAK2-V617F mutation and aUPD and their impact on blood cancers; the correlation between human leukocyte antigens, CHIP mutations, and specific diseases in BioVU and UK Biobank cohorts, and more. Her programming experience includes the creation of an R package to facilitate the efficient extraction and processing of data from large data platforms, and her peer-reviewed publications include papers in Blood Cancer Journal, Genetics in Medicine Open, and Transplantation and Cellular Therapy.

Figure 5 from Li's recent paper in Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology: Adrenal steroid metabolites associated with childhood asthma within Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes molecular pathways. Metabolites that were significantly associated with childhood asthma are highlighted in yellow. Green diamonds indicate enzymes involved in the pathway and gray boxes indicate progenitor or downstream steroid metabolites.

Cara Lwin promoted to biostatistician

Peg Duthie, senior program manager
June 20, 2024

We are pleased to announce the promotion of Cara Lwin to biostatistician, in effect as of June 1. Lwin earned a bachelor's degree in microbiology from the University of Pittsburgh in 2017, with minors in chemistry, computer science, neuroscience, and economics, followed by three years as a senior research associate at eyeGENE and the Ophthalmic Genetics Laboratory at the National Eye Institute. Lwin entered our graduate training program in 2020, began working for the department as an associate biostatistician in 2022, and earned her master's degree in biostatistics this May. Her thesis was titled "Bayesian Survival Analysis Using Data from Electronic Health Records: A Study on Cardiovascular Outcomes Leveraging Information from Randomized Clinical Trials" and can be accessed via Vanderbilt's Institutional Repository. Her activities as a student included serving as Biostatistics Graduate Student Association vice president As a staff biostatistician, she is a member of the Vanderbilt Biostatistics Data Coordinating Center Design & Analysis Unit. See her staff profile for links to her peer-reviewed publications on influenza and COVID-19.

Elisa Yazdani and Cara Lwin listen to speeches in their honor at the department reception for MS graduates, April 16, 2024

Afan Swan promoted to senior research data specialist

Peg Duthie, senior program manager
June 18, 2024

We are delighted to announce the promotion of Afan Swan to senior research data specialist, in effect as of June 1. Swan earned a bachelor's degree in microbiology and master's degree in public health from the University of Alabama, joining our department in 2021 as a health services research analyst. Swan's expertise has been vital to multicenter collaborations with the Investigating Respiratory Viruses in the Acutely Ill (IVY) Network, the Vanderbilt Biostatistics Data Coordinating Center, and elsewhere, and she has co-authored multiple peer-reviewed publications as a VUMC analyst, including the following:

Afan Swan (center) reports on a breakout discussion during a VBDCC meeting, May 2024

Andrew Spieker promoted to associate professor

June 2, 2024

We are pleased to announce the promotion of Dr. Andrew Spieker to associate professor of biostatistics (investigator track, with tenure), effective as of June 1. A graduate of Northeastern University (BS, mathematics) and the University of Washington (PhD, biostatistics), with postdoctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Spieker joined our department in 2018. His primary research interests involve the development of causal inference approaches in observational studies and randomized trials. He has sought to address a wide array of causal inference challenges in his research, including endogeneity bias, censoring of cost outcomes in health policy studies, within-subject correlation in studies of immunological markers, and sensitivity analyses for instrumental variable approaches. His methodological contributions are motivated by real-world challenges encountered in public health. His accomplishments include extending the joint modeling framework for observational studies of cardiovascular biomarker outcomes, with the R package endogenous to support this approach; developing new methods suitable for analysis of cost outcomes, particularly for population-level health policy guidance and resource allocation; and providing leadership in methods development and manuscript preparation for high-impact trials of mobile health interventions to support disease management and medication adherence. 

Dr. Spieker is also in demand for cancer-related studies and other investigations, and he is an active commentator and committee member both in causal inference circles and the wider statistical community. He was appointed associate editor of Observational Studies in 2021 and Biometrics Section program chair for the American Statistical Association’s Joint Statistical Meetings in 2022, and he serves on the Eastern North American Region (ENAR) advisory board for the International Biometric Society.

A thoughtful, highly engaged educator, Dr. Spieker was named Outstanding Faculty Mentor by the biostatistics student body in 2020 and 2023, and they awarded him the Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2021. A 2024 inductee into School of Medicine's Academy for Excellence in Education, he is a mainstay of the Center for Quantitative Sciences’ Summer Institute, founder/organizer of Vanderbilt’s Causal Inference Workshop, chair of the graduate program’s comprehensive exam committee, and co-chair of the faculty recruitment committee.

 

 

Andrew Spieker teaching during the 2023 Summer Institute

Joshua DeClercq promoted to principal biostatistician

Peg Duthie, senior program manager
May 30, 2024

We are delighted to announce the promotion of Josh DeClercq to principal biostatistician, in effect as of May 1. A 2018 graduate of our department's MS program, DeClercq previously earned his bachelor's degree in genetics at the University of California, Davis, and worked at Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, New York University School of Medicine, and Sangamo Biosciences before moving to Nashville. His primary collaborations include Vanderbilt Specialty Pharmacy, the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and the Center for Research and Innovation in Systems Safety, and he won our department's 2020 Linda Stewart Applied Analysis Report Award for his project on healthcare costs and utilization. His interests outside of work include cooking, hiking, camping, listening to heavy metal, and having fun with his daughters.

DeClercq has published more than 25 peer-reviewed papers to date, often in collaborations with professor Leena Choi and senior associate Dan Ayers. Recent articles about and examples of DeClercq's work include:

As a member of the ACTIV-4 Host Tissue team, he also co-authored the widely read 2023 JAMA report on angiotensin-based treatments among COVID-19 patients.

 

Josh DeClercq (right), with senior biostatistician Ryan Moore (left) and professor Leena Choi (center). Photo: Donn Jones / Vanderbilt University Medical Center

First-authored paper in Journal of Biomedical Informatics by Andrew Guide

Peg Duthie, senior program manager
May 28, 2024

Congratulations to senior biostatistician Andrew Guide on the publication of "Identifying erroneous height and weight values from adult electronic health records in the All of Us research program." This paper was published online ahead of print on May 23 in the Journal of Biomedical Informatics and is scheduled to appear in the July 2024 print issue. Co-authors include assistant in biostatistics Shawn Garbett and professor Paul Harris, with professor Qingxia "Cindy" Chen as corresponding author, plus colleagues in Vanderbilt's Department of Biomedical Informatics, at The Ohio State University, and at Columbia University. Here is the graphical abstract of the paper:

Registration is open for the 2024 Summer Institute

Margaret Cullum, associate program manager
May 22, 2024

Registration is now open for the 2024 CQS Summer Institute. This year's offerings include three in-person courses at 2525 West End Avenue, and one virtual course on Zoom.

The morning course (9 a.m.–noon) the first week of the Summer Institute (July 22–26) will feature "Big Data in Biomedical Research," taught by Qi Liu, PhD, professor of biostatistics and biomedical informatics, and Yu Shyr, PhD, professor of biostatistics, biomedical informatics, and health policy. "Introduction to the All of Us Research Program," with course directors Paul Harris, PhD, professor of biomedical informatics, biomedical engineering, and biostatistics, and Qingxia "Cindy" Chen, PhD, professor of biostatistics and bioinformatics and vice chair of education for the Department of Biostatistics, will be in the afternoon (1–4 p.m.) over Zoom.

The second week (July 29–August 2) will feature "Regression and Modeling in R," taught by Gustavo Amorim, PhD, assistant professor of biostatistics in the morning, and "Introduction to Causal Inference," taught by Andrew Spieker, PhD, assistant professor of biostatistics in the afternoon.

Tuition for each course is $700 for VU/VUMC faculty and staff, and $450 for VU/VUMC students, trainees, and postdocs, with a 20% discount on registrations received before June 5. Parking and food are included for in-person courses, with breakfast for morning course participants and boxed lunches for all. The All of Us course is limited to 40 participants. To learn more about each course and to enroll, visit the Summer Institute webpage.

 

 

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