When Laura A. Hatfield, PhD, visited the Department of Health Care Policy to interview for a postdoctoral position last year, things didn’t go quite as she expected. She was giving a presentation to assembled faculty on joint modeling for longitudinal and survival data based on a clinical trial—the subject of her dissertation for her PhD in biostatics from University of Minnesota—and that presentation changed the course of events.
"It was clear from her seminar that her talents and interests would further our work and expertise in comparative effectiveness,” said HCP Head Barbara J. McNeil, MD, PhD.
The day’s schedule was quickly rearranged so that Hatfield could be considered for a different position: Assistant Professor. Ultimately, she was offered—and accepted—the job, and she joined the HCP faculty on September 1, 2011.
Getting started
Hatfield’s first project in comparative effectiveness is a grant application she is working on with HCP faculty members Mary Beth Landrum, PhD, and Nancy L. Keating, MD, MPH. The grant proposes investigating novel concepts of statistical methods for comparative effectiveness by comparing two aspects of a cancer treatment. Similar to Hatfield’s dissertation—but without a clinical trial—the proposed project will combine two kinds of measures of a therapy’s effects: survival time and adverse events.
Hatfield is also collaborating with HCP faculty member Alan M. Zaslavsky, PhD, on methodology for analysis of the Consumer Assessments of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) survey of Medicare beneficiaries. It is known that respondent characteristics, such as age, education, and health status, are associated with better or worse reported experiences with Medicare plans. The strength of these associations varies across plans and may be an indication of how well each plan is doing in providing high-quality care to all of its members, including those with more complex healthcare needs and higher expectations. Performing and interpreting an analysis of these patterns is challenging due to the large number of measures derived from the survey. The methodologies being developed by Hatfield and Zaslavsky have the potential to be useful in analysis of other similarly complicated data sets.
Hatfield also will soon start a project for the FDA with HCP faculty member Sharon-Lise T. Normand, PhD, in which they will develop novel statistical methods to evaluate FDA-approved devices after they have gone to market (i.e., Phase 4 monitoring). The research establishes a Methodology Center for the Medical Device Epidemiology Network (MDEpiNet), a new effort launched by the FDA to develop innovative methodology to tap into large electronic databases. This process of after-market monitoring has less stringent requirements, and the statistical problems are much more challenging, than for clinical trials, in which researchers have greater control over the data. “Laura brings a unique and creative look at handling such complex data,” says Normand.
Local Impressions
Hatfield comes to Boston after spending most of her life in the Midwest, where she earned her BS in Genetics at Iowa State University and her MS and PhD in Biostatistics at the University of Minnesota. While it’s not her first time on the east coast—she spent two years as a research assistant at Johns Hopkins University—she’s finding herself at home in Boston (“a wonderful town”)—and at HCP. “I’ve been so impressed by the support staff, facilities, the overall organization, and the efficiency of the department,” she says.
She’s also finding the faculty welcoming and collegial, with individuals stopping by her office to share their knowledge on the department’s vast array of disciplines and ongoing research projects. She’s particularly impressed by the collaborative model at HCP, in which people from different disciplines—economists, physicians, and statistics—work together. “This model makes it easier to become involved in multidisciplinary work, without having to travel across campus.”
In addition to everything she’s learning from her colleagues, she is also learning from the PhD students. Since she came to HCP without a background in health care policy, her meetings with them have been “like getting a crash course in economics and health care policy.” At the same time, she’s sharing her knowledge with them.
looking ahead
While Hatfield’s position is 100% research, she enjoys teaching and expects to become involved in the Harvard Medical School Introduction to Health Care Policy class. She also hopes to teach short courses in industry and to academic departments in the future. For now, though, the focus is on finishing the last of four papers from her dissertation and bringing her expertise to the projects in progress.
She’s gotten off to a strong start, according to HCP head McNeil. “Laura has been here for less than four months, and already she is integrated into many of our programs and is becoming one of our ‘go-to’ statisticians,” says McNeil. “We are thrilled to have her on the faculty.”
