Biography

I am a pharmacoepidemiologist and Assistant Professor in the departments of Health Services, Policy & Practice and Epidemiology in the Program in Public Health. I received a PharmD from the University of Rhode Island, a PhD in epidemiology from Brown Medical School, and I completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Center for Gerontology and Health Care Research at Brown University. My principal area of research interest is the non-experimental study of drug effects, with applications to drug safety and comparative effectiveness research. Most of my work has involved understanding and using health insurance claims data for this purpose. My methodological expertise covers topics related to studying medical interventions in the setting of non-randomized treatment groups and incomplete data (i.e., claims data). My work has been published in several journals, including the Annals of Internal Medicine, and I serve as a peer-reviewer for a range of clinical and epidemiologic journals.

Prior to joining the Brown faculty full-time in 2011, I worked as Senior Scientist at OptumInsight Epidemiology (formerly i3 Drug Safety), an independent research consultancy that conducts pharmacoepidemiologic studies for the biopharmaceutical industry, mostly in the area of drug and vaccine safety. In my consulting practice, I led several post-approval safety studies of drugs and vaccines. Essentially all of his work was based in commercial health insurance claims data and supplemented with information from abstracted medical records.

Awards

2011 Team Member, Ingenix First Place Innovation Award—Ingenix Natural History of Disease Application

2010 Ingenix President's Award Recipient

2006−present Annals of Internal Medicine Outstanding Reviewer Recognition
Reviews graded by editors to be in the top 10% of all peer reviews (2009)

2004 Rhode Island Pharmacists Association Student Service Award

2004 American Pharmacists Association Mortar and Pestle Professionalism Award

2004 University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy Excellence in Research Award

2004 Kappa Psi Pharmaceutical Fraternity Brother of the Year Award

2002 Kappa Psi Pharmaceutical Fraternity Scholarship Honors

2000 Rho Chi Society Award

1999 Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society Membership

1999 National Society of Collegiate Scholars Membership

1998−2004 University of Rhode Island Dean's List

1998−2004 University of Rhode Island Centennial Scholarship Recipient

Affiliations

2006−2007 Member, American Public Health Association

2006−2008 Member, AcademyHealth

2005−present Member, International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology (ISPE); Education Committee (2010−Present); Development Committee (2007−2009); 25th Anniversary Committee (2008−2009); Local Host Committee for ICPE 2009 (2008−2009); Abstract Reviewer (2008−Present)

2005−2006 Graduate Program Steering Committee (student member), Brown Medical School

2004−present Member, Kappa Psi Pharmaceutical Fraternity Graduate Chapter, Providence, RI

2003−2004 Vice-President, Phi Lambda Sigma Pharmacy Leadership Society

2002−2004 Member, American Society of Health Systems Pharmacists (ASHP)

2001−2003 Delegate, Collegiate Development Committee of the National Kappa Psi Pharmaceutical Fraternity, Inc.

2000−2004 College of Pharmacy Curriculum Committee (student member), University of Rhode Island

1998−2004 Regent (2000–2001), Chaplain (1999–2000), and Pledge Coordinator (2001–2002), Beta Epsilon Chapter, Kappa Psi Pharmaceutical Fraternity, Inc.