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West, David R., PhD |
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Blatchford, Patrick (Jud) PhD |
Henderson, Bill PhD |
Daley, Matthew MD |
Kempe, Allison MD, MPH |
Fairclough, Diane DrPH |
Min, Sung Joon (Max) PhD |
Hammermeister, Karl MD |
Morroto, Elaine DrPH, MPH |
Sills, Marion MD, MPH |
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Babbel, Christine MSPH |
Osborn, Kyle |
Barnard, Juliana (Juli) MA |
Oxley, Renee |
Barrow, Jennifer MSPH |
Pyrzanowski, Jennifer |
Beaty, Brenda MSPH |
Saville, Alison MSPH, MSW |
Campagna, Elizabeth |
Sullivan, Ellen
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Hosokawa, Patrick |
Madison, Matt |
Moss, Lou |
Nyirenda, Carsie MPH |
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Seewald, Laura |
COHO and COR Faculty
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David R. West, PhD currently serves as the Director for COHO. He is a
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Brenda Beaty joined the Colorado Health Outcomes Program in 2002 and has served as analytic coordinator since that time. She manages the efforts of the COHO analytic team as well as performing data analysis on a number of projects. She became a SAS Certified Base Programmer in June of 2003, and founded the Health Sciences Center SAS Users Group in March, 2004. Brenda currently serves as the Chair for the Denver SAS Users Group. She works with projects both at COHO and the Children's Outcomes Research Program (COR) in the Department of Pediatrics. From 1997 to 2001 she worked on the Colorado Rural Immunization Services Project in the Department of Pediatrics. She also worked for the Diabetes Autoimmunity Study in the Young in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics. She received her Master of Science in Public Health in 1993 from the University of Colorado Denver and her Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering with distinction from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado in 1989. Back to top.
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Jud Blatchford graduated from Pepperdine University in 1991 with a bachelor’s degree in both Sports Medicine and Physical Education. In 1992 he completed his Master of Education at the University of California Los Angeles. After teaching in Santa Monica for a year, he and his wife moved to Colorado in 1993. Jud taught mathematics at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado from 1993 to 2003. He decided to pursue a degree in statistics, and graduated in 2007 with a Ph.D. in Biostatistics from the University of Colorado Denver. He worked as a professional research assistant in the UCD Department of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics from 2004 through 2007. His research interests are in the field of group sequential clinical trials. Back to top.
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Maya Bunik received her medical degree from the University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis in 1988. She completed a residency including a chief residency in pediatrics at the University of Colorado Denver and The Children's Hospital in 1992. She was Clinical Assistant Professor UCSF working at Children's Hospital in Oakland for over 10 years. She returned to Colorado to complete the primary care research fellowship at the University of Colorado Denver including MPSH 2003-2005. Dr. Bunik is currently Associate Professor in Pediatrics and medical director of the Child Health Clinic. Her main health services research interest lies in improving breastfeeding initiation and duration and healthy early infant feeding practices (ages zero to three) as they relate to the continuum of obesity for low-income populations and more specifically Latinos. Her other interest lies in outcomes related to telephone triage. She has published investigations combination feeding (breast and formula) in Latina mothers as well as telephone support and culturally-enhanced scripted guidelines to support breastfeeding in low-income Latinas; completed a secondary database study of breastfeeding and enrollment in the Special Supplementation Program for Women, Infant and Children (WIC) Program. Also, she published evaluation of an innovative field trip model breastfeeding curriculum that she developed during her time at Children's Hospital Oakland. Back to top.
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Matthew Daley received his medical degree from the Stanford University School of Medicine in 1995. He completed a residency in pediatrics at the University of Colorado Denver and The Children's Hospital in 1999, and a primary care research fellowship at the University of Colorado Denver in 2001. Dr. Daley is board-certified in General Pediatrics, and is a member of the Ambulatory Pediatrics Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado. He serves as a faculty mentor to pediatric residents and also directs an international adoption clinic. His research interests include a variety of immunization-related issues (implementing new immunization recommendations; adolescent immunization; disparities in immunization rates; influenza vaccination practice and policy; reminder/recall; and vaccine safety) as well as broader issues of health care access, and delivery of preventive medical and dental services to children. He is currently the principal investigator on a federal grant examining the feasibility of adolescent immunization in diverse medical settings, and is a co-investigator in the Vaccine Policy Collaborative Initiative and the Vaccine Safety Datalink projects. Back to top.
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Diane Fairclough received her doctoral degree in Biostatistics from the University of North Carolina. She has held appointments at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Harvard School of Public Health, AMC Cancer Research Center and the University of Colorado Denver. She is President Elect of the International Society for Quality of Life Research. She has over 150 peer-reviewed publications on the psychosocial sequelae of cancer and its therapy. Dr Fairclough’s primary research interest is Quality of Life and psychosocial sequelae of cancer and its therapy in pediatric and adult patients. This includes the neuropsychological sequelae of therapy in pediatric patients treated for brain tumors or receiving CNS prophylaxis (primarily ALL), long-term outcomes for survivors, the impact of therapy on QOL, and end of life issues including attitudes concerning PAS and euthanasia. In the area of statistical methodology, Dr. Fairclough’s research interests include the design and analysis of longitudinal studies with non-random missing data due to disease morbidity or mortality. She is the author of Design and Analysis of Quality of Life Studies in Clinical Trials
(2002). The second edition of the book will appear in early 2010. Back to top.
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David Fox received his medical degree from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of NJ in 1996 and completed his residency and chief residency at the Children’s Hospital of New York. For the next five years he served as the Director of Pediatric Inpatient Medicine at St. Barnabas hospital in the Bronx, NY. While there he helped to start a new pediatric residency at St. Barnabas, and served as an Associate Residency Director for three years. After moving to Colorado in 2006 and working as a hospitalist and ambulatory pediatrician, he began a Primary Care Research fellowship. His research interests include regional variation in pediatric care, the utilization of pediatric decision aids and fundoplication in the special needs population. Back to top.
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Karl Hammermeister received his undergraduate and medical school education, as well as most of his postgraduate training, at the University of Washington in Seattle. He retired from the VA in July 2004 following 34 years of service as a cardiologist. He continues to hold an appointment of Professor of Medicine and continues his long-time research interest in measuring and improving the quality of care as part-time investigator at COHO. His primary research interest is evaluation of outcomes of care, particularly the use of risk-adjusted outcomes as measures of quality of care. He is one of the originators (together with Frederick L. Grover, MD) in 1987 of the ongoing VA Continuous Improvement in Cardiac Surgery Program, where risk-adjusted outcomes have been used to assess and improve the quality of cardiac surgery throughout the VA. Currently funded outcomes research includes: the assessment of the effect of intra-operative changes in blood pressure, heart rate, and oxygen saturation on late mortality; predictors of length of stay; and the development of automated, point-of-care decisions support to reduce perioperative complications. Back to top.
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Bill Henderson received his BA degree in mathematics from Pomona College, Claremont, California, in 1965, and his Master of Public Health and PhD degrees in biostatistics from the University of Michigan in 1967 and 1970. From 1970-71, he served as a mathematical statistician at the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke, and from 1971-76, he was a biostatistics faculty member at the University of Iowa. In 1976, Dr. Henderson joined the VA Cooperative Studies Program Coordinating Center in Hines, Illinois, to conduct large-scale research that would have an impact on clinical practice. He became the Director of the Center in 1978. During his tenure at the VA Cooperative Studies Program Dr. Henderson helped design, implement, conduct, analyze, and publish over 40 multicenter clinical trials in the VA system in many different disease areas. Dr. Henderson retired from the VA in 2002 and is now Director of the Biostatistics Core in the Colorado Health Outcomes Program, and a Professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine at the University of Colorado. Dr. Henderson is a member of the Board of Directors of the Society for Clinical Trials. He helped design the 5-day clinical trials course for the American College of Surgeons and helped design and coordinate a similar course in the VA. Dr. Henderson currently serves as co-chair of the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP), and manages the NSQIP Data Coordinating Center located at COHO. The NSQIP is a quality assurance program that collects pre-operative risk factors, intra-operative data, and 30-day post-operative mortality and morbidity outcomes in patients undergoing major surgery and feeds back the patient risk-adjusted outcomes to the Chiefs of Surgery at participating institutions. The NSQIP currently has all 123 VA medical centers that perform major surgery participating in the program and 14 non-VA private institutions under a grant from AHRQ. There are plans to expand the program to other interested private hospitals throughout the country. Back to top.
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Allison Kempe, Director of
Children's Outcomes Research Program, is a graduate of Oberlin College
and the University of Colorado School of Medicine. She was a resident in
pediatrics at the Strong Memorial Hospital at University of Rochester,
and a fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson General Pediatrics Academic
Development Program at the University of Rochester, where she received a
Master of Public Health degree. She has been a faculty member at the
University of Colorado Denver since 1992. She is currently an Associate
Professor of Pediatrics, and Director of the Research Division of
General Academic Pediatrics and of the Primary Care Research Fellowship
and Faculty Development Fellowship. Additionally, she remains actively
involved in junior faculty development. Dr. Kempe is a member of the
Pediatric Academic Society and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Back to top.
Sung-Joon (Max) Min received his PhD in Biostatistics and AM in Economics from the University of Michigan. He is currently Assistant Professor of Medicine (in the Division of Health Care Policy and Research) with a secondary appointment in the Department of Biostatistics. At COHO he is mainly involved with projects related to the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP). Prior to joining UCD, he was a biostatistician for the Colorado Foundation for Medical Care. Dr. Min's research interests lie in the application of modern statistical methods to biomedical and health care research, and the development of applicable statistical methods to aid collaborative research. He is particularly interested in health care financing issues (such as improving health care quality while containing costs) and twin fetal growth curve estimation. His primary methodologic interests are in group sequential design and economic evaluation of longitudinal clinical trials. Additionally, he is interested in econometric methods for non-normally distributed variables often found in health care settings. Back to top.
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Elaine Morrato received her
Bachelors of Science in Biology at Purdue University in 1988 with
Highest Distinction. She was an R&D manager at Procter & Gamble for 14
years where she had responsibility for leading prescription and
over-the-counter drug development programs including Phase III, IIIb,
and IV clinical programs; epidemiology and pharmacoeconomic studies; and
qualitative and quantitative survey research with physicians and
patients. Her experience encompasses the US, Canadian, and European
health care systems and covers a variety of therapeutic categories,
including cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and periodontal diseases. In
2003, she earned her masters degree in Public Health at Johns Hopkins
University followed by her Doctor of Public Health in Epidemiology in
2006. She completed a Fellowship in Outcomes Research at the University
of Colorado, School of Pharmacy. She is now an Assistant Professor in
the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado with
appointments in the Departments of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics
and Clinical Pharmacy and senior methodologist for the Childrens
Outcomes Research Program sponsored by The Childrens Hospital. Dr.
Morratos research interests include child health outcomes, FDA policy
evaluation, and practice-based interventions to improve patient safety.
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Marion Sills received her medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1993 and completed her residency in pediatrics at Hopkins in 1996. She completed her fellowship training in pediatric emergency medicine at Children's National Medical Center while also completing her MPH at the George Washington University. Dr. Sills is board-certified in Pediatric Emergency Medicine and in Pediatrics, and is a member of the Academic Pediatric Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics. She is currently an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, and is an Attending Physician in the Emergency Department at The Children's Hospital. She serves as a faculty mentor to residents and fellows. Her research interests include emergency department crowding, quality measures for care provided to children in the emergency department, and health information technology in the emergency department.
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Christina Suh received her medical degree from Indiana University School of Medicine in 2003. She completed a general pediatrics residency at Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center in 2006 and the Primary Care Research Fellowship in 2008. She is board certified in General Pediatrics, is currently an Instructor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado Denver, and attends in the ambulatory outpatient general pediatrics clinic at The Childrens Hospital. Her research interests include immunization delivery and policy and community based interventions to prevent childhood overweight and obesity.
COHO and COR Staff
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Christine Babbel graduated with honors with a bachelor of Environmental Health Sciences degree from Colorado State University in 1999. She obtained her Master of Science in Public Health from the University of Colorado Denver in August 2006. Ms. Babbel joined the University of Colorado Denver in 1999 and has worked on a variety of studies including the DAISY study (Diabetes Autoimmunity Study in the Young), the CACTI study (Coronary Artery Calcification in Type I Diabetes), and the Colorado Weigh Program, a community-based weight loss program through the Center for Human Nutrition. She joined the Colorado Health Outcomes and Children’s Outcomes Research Programs in December 2004 as the Project Coordinator for the Vaccine Policy Collaborative Initiative, a program that is collaborating with the CDC to conduct and analyze surveys of providers in order to respond to issues relevant to immunization delivery policy.
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Juliana Barnard received her Master of Arts in Sociology from the University of Oklahoma in 1994. She joined the Children’s Outcomes Research Program (COR) in September, 2007 following twelve years as an Epidemiologist /Research Coordinator in the Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at National Jewish Medical and Research Center. While there, Ms. Barnard was part of a research team investigating the etiology and treatment of granulomatous lung diseases and co-authored several publications. At COR, Ms. Barnard is studying the quality of life outcomes in disabled children following orthaepedic surgery in collaboration with investigators at the Children’s Hospital in Aurora, Colorado. Back to top.
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Jennifer Barrow received her Bachelor of Economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1990. In 1998, she completed a Master of Science in Public Health from the University of Colorado Denver. Ms. Barrow has over 10 years of project management experience, primarily at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and the University of Colorado Denver. She has worked on a variety of children’s health issues including evaluating HIV prevention programs for youth, implementing and evaluating the CHP+ program, and, most recently, vaccine related projects. Her research experience includes study design and implementation, survey development, qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis, budgeting, reporting and manuscript preparation. Ms. Barrow joined the Colorado Health Outcomes and Children’s Outcomes Research Programs in January 2002 as the Project Manager for a study examining the uptake of new and targeted vaccines for high-risk children. She is now co-manager for the Vaccine Policy Collaborative Initiative, a project implementing quick turnaround surveys with physicians on current vaccine policy topics. Additionally, she co-manages two additional studies focused on improving immunization delivery with adolescents. Ms. Barrow has co-authored several articles. Back to top.
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Elizabeth Campagna obtained her Master of Science in Biostatistics from the
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Patrick Hosokawa joined COHO in 2007. He works on the ACS-NSQIP, a quality-improvement initiative analyzing surgical data from approximately 200 hospitals around the country. He has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Colorado Boulder and was previously a web and database developer. He is currently pursuing an MS in Biostatistics from the University of Colorado Denver. Back to top.
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Matthew Madison is a Senior Professional Research Assistant. He supports the AHRQ federal contract funding the implementation of a health information exchange known as the Colorado Regional Health Information Organization (CORHIO). He has over ten years experience in the health care industry as an analyst and product manager (McKesson Health Solutions, Access Health Solutions and Blue Shield of California). Back to top.
Lou Moss joined the Colorado Health Outcomes Program as a Program Assistant/IRB Coordinator in December 2008. She has a background in Marketing and Advertising. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Mass Communication from Middle Tennessee State University in 2005. She is currently working on her Master's of Public Administration at the University of Colorado, Denver. Back to top.
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Carsie Nyirenda received her BSc in Human Physiology from the University of Zambia in 1990, followed by an MB ChB in 1994. She later received a Master of Public Health from the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in 1997. She has worked in a variety of public health fields, including infectious disease, cardiovascular research and tumor registry. She relocated to the Denver area in 2005 and joined COHO in 2006, where she works with Dr. Henderson as a Professional Research Assistant. Back to top.
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Kyle Osborn received his bachelor’s degree in Community Health Promotion from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1988. He joined the American Cancer Society in 1989 as a Public Education Coordinator and, in 1991, became the Executive Director of the Adams County Unit, overseeing fundraising, programs, and administration for the Society. He then joined Project ASSIST, a nation-wide initiative to reduce tobacco use, as the Denver Field Coordinator and aided in implementing smoke-free ordinances throughout the Denver area. In 1995, he began working with the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control at the University of Colorado Comprehensive Cancer Center. Mr. Osborn joined the Colorado Health Outcomes Program in 2002 as the Administrator, where he is responsible for long-range planning, strategic development, human resources issues and budgetary oversight. Back to top.
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Renee Oxley joined the Colorado Health Outcomes Program in 2004 after working at The Cooper Institute for over two years in the Center for Research Methods and Biometry as a grants administrator and administrative assistant. Prior to The Cooper Institute, she worked in the same capacity at AMC Cancer Research Center. While living in Southern California, Renee worked as the office manager in the Hematology/Oncology Research Lab at Children’s Hospital of Orange County. Renee and her husband enjoy riding their Harley (when the weather is nice) and spending time with family and friends. They are also huge NASCAR fans – Dale Jr. for Renee and Jeff Gordon for John! Back to top.
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Jennifer Pyrzanowski joined the Colorado Health Outcomes and Children’s Outcomes Research Programs as a professional research assistant in December of 2006. She is the project coordinator for a study assessing the feasibility and acceptability of vaccinating adolescents in complementary health care settings. She is currently completing her Master of Science in Public Health at the University of Colorado Denver. She comes to COHO from Jefferson County Department of Health and Environment where she worked as a public health researcher within the Tobacco Prevention Initiative Program. Back to top.
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Alison Saville graduated from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in 2005 with a dual master’s degree in Public Health and Social Work. She has a variety of experiences both in community-based programs and research working mostly with nonprofits and academic institutions. Between undergraduate studies and graduate school, she worked with children with developmental disabilities and also directed an employment assistance program for homeless adults in Dallas, Texas. Most recently, Alison directed a community-wide obesity prevention program in Wilmington, North Carolina. Her main research/project interests are working to improve health outcomes for vulnerable populations, particularly women and children. Alison moved to Denver with her husband in August 2007 and began work with the Children’s Outcomes Research program in October. Currently, she is the project manager for a CDC funded study evaluating the effectiveness of vaccine reminder/recall systems for adolescent patients. Back to top.
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Laura Seewald received her Bachelor of Arts in 2008 from Colorado College, where she majored in Neuroscience and Classics. After graduating, she joined the Colorado Health Outcomes and Childrens Outcomes Research Programs in the Fall of 2008 and currently works as a PRA. Ms. Seewald primarily works for the Vaccine Policy Collaborative Initiative, a project that uses quick turnaround surveys of physicians opinions to help address current vaccine policy topics. Additionally, she works for a study that evaluates the effectiveness of vaccine reminder/recall systems for adolescent patients. Back to top.
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Ellen Sullivan joined the Colorado Health Outcomes Program as a Program Assistant/Fellowship Coordinator in November 2008. She has 10 years education experience as a Business Manager for two of her local neighborhood schools, serving preschool through 8th grade students. Previously, Ellen spent 15 years in advertising and marketing where she was responsible for the account planning, research and production departments. Her account experience includes Johns Manville, Colorado Lottery Proceeds, US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Vail Valley Marketing Board, Hunter Douglas and Qwest. She received her Bachelors of Arts from Colorado State University.