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Graphic of DNA strand transitioning into human figure
Graphic of DNA strand transitioning into human figure
Q&A: Race, medicine and the future power of genetic ancestry
UW News,

Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine that they “do not believe that ignoring race will reduce health disparities” but rather that “such an approach is a form of naive ‘color blindness’ that is more likely to perpetuate and potentially exacerbate disparities,” five Black geneticists set out to explain the pitfalls of leaving race out of medicine. UW news reached out to co-author Timothy Thornton from Biostatistics to learn more. 

Graphic outlining the process of how cloud computing, machine learning, and advanced data analytics allows for future predictive algorithms of clinical outcomes for neonates
Graphic outlining the process of how cloud computing, machine learning, and advanced data analytics allows for future predictive algorithms of clinical outcomes for neonates
Wireless skin sensors for physiological monitoring of infants in low-income and middle-income countries
The Lancet Digital Health,

Through continued intentional collaboration between engineers, data scientists, nurses, health-care providers, philanthropists, and patients' families, new skin-integrated systems offer the promise of raising the standard of neonatal monitoring by improving outcomes and humanizing care worldwide. Amy Sarah Ginsburg with the UW Clinical Trial Center, based out of the Department of Biostatistics, is a co-author

Photos of Peter Gilbert and Holly Janes
Photos of Peter Gilbert and Holly Janes
Biostatisticians draft blueprints for COVID-19 vax trials
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Hutch News,

When COVID-19 burst onto the scene last winter, and Tony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was looking for a way to run massive, credible and rigorous trials of potential vaccines, he turned to experts at the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) based at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Co-principal investigators of the HVTN Statistics and Data Management Center include three researchers who are also University of Washington School of Public Health faculty: Peter Gilbert (Biostat), Holly Janes (Biostat), and Yunda Huang (Global Health).

Headshot of Jon Wakefield
Headshot of Jon Wakefield
Space‐time modeling of child mortality at the Admin‐2 level in a low and middle income countries context
Wiley Online Library,

Jonathan Wakefield, professor of biostatistics and statistics, is co-author of this paper that describes four extensions to previous work: (i) combining summary birth history data with full birth history data, (ii) modeling on a yearly scale, to combine data on a yearly scale with data at coarser time scales, (iii) adjusting direct estimates in Admin‐2 areas where we do not observe any deaths due to small sample sizes, (iv) acknowledge differences in data sources by modeling potential bias arising from the various data sources. 

Headshot of Timothy Thornton
Headshot of Timothy Thornton
Harnessing genetic diversity to narrow racial disparities in healthcare
The COVID-19 pandemic has accentuated racial disparities in healthcare and health outcomes. For example, hospitalization and mortality rates for Black Americans are two, even three, times higher than those for White Americans. These health disparities have rekindled a longstanding debate about the use of race in clinical practice and biomedical research. In a recently published New England Journal of Medicine article, five genetic researchers who self-identify as Black provided their perspective on the use of race in medicine.