Epidemiologic Research & Methods
Epidemiology Expert ConsultingAbout Epidemiologic Research & Methods
We are a full-service provider for all phases of epidemiologic study design, conduct, analysis, interpretation and manuscript preparation.
We currently have 15 team members including three Senior Epidemiologists with expertise in epidemiologic methods. Our expertise includes substantive areas of pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety, mental health and substance abuse, environmental health, infectious diseases, neurologic diseases, and other chronic diseases.
Our team has extensive experience with:
• Estimation of incidence, prevalence, survival and other characteristics of rare disease.
• Data management, linkage and analyses of large healthcare claims data, including Medicare and Medicaid. We conduct literature reviews, syntheses, meta-analyses, and evaluation of the extent to which evidence supports causal inferences.
• Evaluation and monitoring of vaccine safety, adverse events, study design for evaluation of vaccine effectiveness, and evaluation of vaccine uptake.
• In particular, we have experience in all phases of epidemiologic process, including literature review, meta-analysis, study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, summarization and manuscript preparation.
Areas of expertise include management, linkage and analyses of large datasets such as Medicaid, Medicare, analyses of large electronic health record databases, meta-analyses, writing and executing data use agreements to secure access to research databases through CMS including Medicaid and Medicare, data visualization for reporting and presentation and automation for updated reporting. Our team has expertise in Tableau, SAS, R, STATA, ArcGIS, and other visualization, database, and statistical software.
Our managing members have over 200 publications in diverse areas of epidemiology that include the substantive areas noted above and many methodologic areas, making us well prepared to efficiently provide advice with all areas of epidemiologic study design, analysis, and interpretation.
*Please note that our services do not include medical advice; we do not act as physicians and do not provide clinical or medical consultation.
Our Experts
W. Dana Flanders
MD, DSc, MPH, MA
W. Dana Flanders is a professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics and in the Department of Epidemiology with Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University. Dr. Flanders is a member of the Cancer Prevention and Control Research Program at Winship Cancer Institute.
He obtained his MD from the University of Vermont and his DSc and MPH from Harvard University. Prior to earning his doctorates, Dr. Flanders also earned his MA from Columbia University.
Michael Goodman
MD, MPH
Michael Goodman is a Professor at the Department of Epidemiology, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health. He is an epidemiologist and a licensed physician with formal training and practice experience in Pediatrics and Preventive Medicine.
Originally from Lithuania, Dr. Goodman received his MD degree from the Kaunas Medical Academy in 1984. He received his MPH degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health in 1995. In addition to his work as an epidemiologist, Dr. Goodman has nearly 20 years of experience as a practicing physician both in his native Lithuania and in the United States.
Anne Dilley
PhD, MPH
Anne Dilley is an epidemiologist with over 30 years of experience in both government and pharmaceutical industry settings. Her expertise spans standard and novel epidemiological methodology, pharmacoepidemiology, design and conduct of insurance claims and electronic medical record database studies, registry design and implementation, and designing and implementating focused safety studies to meet post-authorization regulatory requirements.
From 2010-2020, Dr. Dilley established, managed, and led an epidemiology function at Biogen, providing epidemiological strategy, support and contributions across the drug development and post-market portfolio.
Dr. Dilley holds an MPH in Epidemiology from UCLA and a PhD in Epidemiology from Emory University.
Cathy Lally
MSPH
Cathy Lally is an epidemiologist specializing in data analytics, database design, data management, project management, and SAS programming with over 30 years of research experience in multiple fields of epidemiology including Genetic Epidemiology, Pharmacoepidemiology, and Environmental and Occupational Health.
Our Services
General Epi
- Literature review
- Meta-analysis
- Study design
- Data collection
- Analysis
- Interpretation
- Summarization
- Manuscript preparation
Disease Focus
- Mental health
- Substance abuse
- Environmental health
- Infectious diseases
- Neurologic diseases
- Other chronic diseases
Methods Focus
- Prevalence estimation and projection for rare diseases
- Causal inference
- Sample size and power considerations
- Complex modelling
- Missing data
- Misclassification issues
Selected Publications
1. Chapman LE, Iskander JK, Chen RT, Neff J, Birkhead GS, Poland G, Gray GC, Siegel J, Sepkowitz K, Robertson RM, Yancy C, Guerra FA, Gardner P, Modlin JF, Maurer T, Berger T, Flanders WD, Shope R. A process for sentinel case review to assess causal relationships between smallpox vaccination and adverse outcomes, 2003–2004. Clinical infectious diseases. 2008;46(Supplement_3):S271-S293.
2. Donahue JG, Kieke BA, Szilagy PG, Blumkin AK, Hilgemann D, Flanders WD et al. Can the rolling cross-sectional survey design be used to estimate the effectiveness of influenza vaccines? Vaccine. 2014;32(48):6440-6444.
3. Miller MA, Flanders WD. A model to estimate the probability of hepatitis B-and Haemophilus influenzae type b-vaccine uptake into national vaccination programs. Vaccine. 2000;18(21):2223-2230.
4. Neff J, Modlin J, Birkhead GS, Poland G, Robertson RM, Sepkowitz K, Yancy C, Gardner P, Gray GC, Maurer T, Siegel J, Guerra F, Berger T, Flanders WD, Shope R. Monitoring the safety of a smallpox vaccination program in the United States: report of the joint Smallpox Vaccine Safety Working Group of the advisory committee on immunization practices and the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board. Clinical infectious diseases. 2008;46(Supplement_3):S258-S270.
5. Flanders WD, Flanders WD, Goodman M. The association of voter turnout with county-level coronavirus disease 2019 occurrence early in the pandemic. Annals of epidemiology. 2020;49:42-49.
6. Alsnes IV, Munkvik M, Flanders WD, Øyane N. How well did Norwegian general practice prepare to address the COVID-19 pandemic? Family medicine and community health. 2020;8(4).
7.Flanders WD, Garber MD: Is the Smog Lifting?: Causal Inference in Environmental Epidemiology. Epidemiology 2019, 30:317-20. Accessible here.
8. Goodman M, Adams N, Corneil T, Kreukels B, Motmans J, Coleman E. Size and distribution of transgender and gender non-conforming populations. Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinics of North America 2019 8(2):303-321
9. Lally, C., Jones, C., Farwell, W., Reyna, S. P., Cook, S. F., & Flanders, W. D. Indirect estimation of the prevalence of spinal muscular atrophy Type I, II, and III in the United States. Orphanet journal of rare diseases, 2017;12(1):175. Accessible here.
10. Goodman M, Naiman D, LaKind J. Systematic review of the literature on triclosan and health outcomes in humans Critical Reviews in Toxicology 2018 48(1):1-51. Accessible here.