Center for Care Delivery and Outcomes Research

Statistics, Informatics, and Data Management Core

Purpose: Our Statistics, Informatics, and Data Management Core (SIDM Core) not only enables clinical and health systems research, but develops new methods and serves as a resource for operational partners, informatics groups, and researchers across VA.

Expertise: The SIDM Core, led by Deputy Director Brent Taylor, comprises 17 team members with a broad range of expertise including: statistical analysis and study design, database development, administrative data extraction, mobile app development, mobile survey creation, scannable forms technology, Natural Language Processing, and technical writing. Team members have especially valuable expertise in design, development, and implementation of custom applications and websites for the management of complex studies. They have generated custom applications for dozens of trials and prospective observational studies, contributing to the outstanding recruitment and retention rates that are standard for CCDOR research projects. CCDOR statisticians have been PIs on HSR IIRs aimed at developing statistical methods tailored to the VA research environment. The EVOLVE: Emulated trial of the VOICE study for improving pain and reducing Long-term Opioid use for Veterans (PI: Hammett) started in FY 2024, and there has been a long list of prior successful methods based IIRs, including: “Causal Dynamic Predictive Models for Cross Sectional Observational Data”, “Conditional Independence Based Model Diagnostic Methods,” and “Generalized Linear Model Analysis under Directional Selection Bias”. CCDOR programmers are sought out to solve complex issues with VA data, including creating a tracking tool to help the National Gastroenterology Director quickly respond to inquiries from the Office of the Inspector General, creating tools for VA Cooperative Studies Program Data Coordinating Centers to better identify research participants, and helping other VA sites to develop participant management software tools. Finally, members of this team frequently partner with National VA Resource groups such as VINCI, VIReC, and the PROVEN Hub to stay on top of the latest trends in VA data and to contribute back to those resource groups to make sure they are aware of data concerns and novel solutions in the field.

Data Programmers and Informaticians: Ann Bangerter, BS Andrea Cutting, MS Hanna Lefchak, MPH Sean Nugent, BA (In memoriam) Isai Ortiz, MD Lisa Smith, BSN, RN Anders Westanmo, PharmD, MBA Statisticians: Collin Calvert, PhD, MPH Barb Clothier, MS, MA Amy Gravely, MA Emily Hagel Campbell, MS Patrick Hammett, MA, PhD Adam Kaplan, PhD Allyson Kats, MS Lisa Langsetmo, PhD Dave Nelson, PhD Siamak Noorbaloochi, PhD Brent Taylor, PhD

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