Robert Wellman, MS
“Being part of Kaiser Permanente research teams gives me a chance to develop cutting-edge biostatistical methods while contributing to health care research with a national impact.”
Robert Wellman, MS
Principal Collaborative Biostatistician, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute
Robert.D.Wellman@kp.org
206-287-2557
Biography
A graduate of the University of Washington (UW) biostatistics program, Robert Wellman, MS, joined the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI) Biostatistics Unit in 2009. His work spans a diverse collection of topics including mental health, pharmacoepidemiology, postmarketing drug safety surveillance, obesity, diagnostic test accuracy, back pain, and breast cancer. Prior to this, he spent 5 years in the Biostatistics Core at the UW Center for AIDS Research.
Research interests and experience
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Biostatistics
Causal inference; longitudinal data; diagnostic and screening test accuracy; clinical trials; survival analysis: rare disease outcomes; nonparametrics; missing data; electronic data; distributed data; statistical computing
Vaccines & Infectious Diseases
Biostatistics; HIV/AIDS; vaccine safety
Complementary & Integrative Health
Biostatistics; clinical trials; back pain
Obesity
Biostatistics; bariatric surgery
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Cancer
Biostatistics; breast cancer; effects of chemotherapy; accuracy of automated data; screening test accuracy; advanced imaging
Medication Use & Patient Safety
Biostatistics; pharmacoepidemiology; postmarketing drug safety surveillance; big data; electronic health record and claims data
Mental Health
Biostatistics; suicide risk prediction, machine learning
Recent publications
Fireman B, Gruber S, Zhang Z, Wellman R, Nelson JC, Franklin J, Maro J, Murray CR, Toh S, Gagne J, Schneeweiss S, Amsden L, Wyss R. Consequences of depletion of susceptibles for hazard ratio estimators based on propensity scores. Epidemiology. 2020 Nov;31(6):806-814. doi: 10.1097/EDE.0000000000001246. PubMed
Lewis CC, Wellman R, Jones SMW, Walsh-Bailey C, Thompson E, Derus A, Paolino A, Steiner J, De Marchis EH, Gottlieb LM, Sharp AL. Comparing the performance of two social risk screening tools in a vulnerable subpopulation. J Family Med Prim Care. 2020 30;9(9):5026-5034. doi: 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_650_20. eCollection 2020 Sep. PubMed
McTigue KM, Wellman R, Nauman E, Anau J, Coley RY, Odor A, Tice J, Coleman KJ, Courcoulas A, Pardee RE, Toh S, Janning CD, Williams N, Cook A, Sturtevant JL, Horgan C, Arterburn D. Comparing the 5-year diabetes outcomes of sleeve gastrectomy and gastric bypass: the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network (PCORNet) - Bariatric Study. JAMA Surg. 2020 May 1;155(5):e200087. doi: 10.1001/jamasurg.2020.0087. Epub 2020 May 20. PubMed
Shi X, Wellman R, Heagerty PJ, Nelson JC, Cook AJ. Safety surveillance and the estimation of risk in select populations: Flexible methods to control for confounding while targeting marginal comparisons via standardization. Stat Med. 2020;39(4):369-386. doi: 10.1002/sim.8410. Epub 2019 Dec 10. PubMed
Sherman KJ, Wellman RD, Hawkes RJ, Phelan EA, Lee T, Turner JA. T'ai Chi for chronic low back pain in older adults: a feasibility trial. J Altern Complement Med. 2020 Feb 3. doi: 10.1089/acm.2019.0438. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
New findings
Simpler models to identify suicide risk perform similarly to more complex ones
Models that are easier to explain, use could have better uptake in health care settings.
Research
Phone therapy for insomnia shown to improve sleep
A study among KP members with sleep problems and osteoarthritis shows promise for overcoming obstacles to treatment.
healthy findings blog
Best weight-loss surgery for diabetes and severe obesity?
Watch video on latest results from PCORnet Bariatric Study. (Spoiler alert: Bypass, not sleeve.)
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