Epidemiology and Outcomes
Epidemiology and Outcomes Research Areas
The epidemiology research the Division is conducting spans a spectrum of rheumatic diseases and draws on the expertise of colleagues in multiple departments at Stanford School of Medicine.
The full breadth of the Immunology and Rheumatology Division’s epidemiology research is extensive, spanning predictors of long-term safety, risks of new and emerging treatments, health outcomes, and working to gain new insights into clinical decision-making. In addition to epidemiologic studies to understand the causes of rheumatologic diseases and identify effective therapies, faculty also investigate how factors such as social vulnerabilities and cognitive bias can affect patients’ diagnoses and treatments to serve a more diverse patient population.
Our research spans a spectrum of rheumatic diseases. We draw on expertise from colleagues across the school of medicine.
Falasinnu Group
Dr. Titilola Falasinnu studies epidemiological inference in rheumatology, emphasizing pain, disability, and function. Her research is advancing our understanding of risk factors for the development of chronic pain. She is interested in understanding how social vulnerabilities contribute to morbidity and mortality in rheumatic diseases, with the goal of developing interventions to reduce gender and race/ethnic disparities.
Tamang Group
Dr. Suzanne Tamang’s research group uses data science and informatics techniques to study human diseases and their impact on population health outcomes and healthcare spending. Also, to enable new knowledge discovery and for the purpose of building next generation informatics tools for population health management and measurement.
Simard Group
Dr. Julia Simard is investigating the effect of rheumatologic diseases on reproductive and fetal outcomes. Lupus and other rheumatic disease patients have gone from being largely told to avoid pregnancy to now receiving guidance on how to manage their disease and medications to reduce their risks of adverse outcomes. This work involves collaborations with Stanford Obstetrics and Gynecology, Nephrology, Pediatrics, and Division faculty in their clinical focus areas: Dr. Lorinda Chung (systemic sclerosis), Dr. Yashaar Chaichian (lupus), and Dr. Audra Horomanki (vasculitis).
Baker Group
Dr. Matthew Baker is leveraging large datasets to investigate hypotheses generated from clinical and preclinical data with the goal of identifying key clinical associations, pathways, or existing therapeutics that can serve as the foundation for future interventional studies. His clinical research program is primarily focused on sarcoidosis, IgG4-related disease, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis.
Chaichian Group
Dr. Yashaar Chaichian works closely with Dr. Julia Simard and other collaborators on epidemiologic studies of maternal/fetal outcomes in SLE pregnancy, the role of cognitive and unconscious bias in the evaluation of SLE/other female-predominant autoimmune conditions, and investigation of the impact of COVID-19 on autoimmunity.