US Life Table Program: Data Challenges, Methodological Solutions, and Moving into the Future
Join us on Wednesday, March 25th for the Department of Epidemiology seminar series featuring Dr. Elizabeth Arias discussing US Life Table Program: Data Challenges, Methodological Solutions, and Moving into the Future.
Abstract: The presentation will provide a historical overview of the US Life Table Program and a summary of the data challenges and methodological solutions employed over the years. The talk will include a description of the US National Vital Statistics System with its inherent challenges and limitations. Specific topics covered will include old age data quality, racial and ethnic misclassification, and small geographic area estimates. The goals for the future of the program will be discussed.
Bio: Dr. Elizabeth Arias is the Director of the US Life Table Program and the Mortality Statistics and Research Team Lead in the Division of Vital Statistics, at the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Dr. Arias received her Ph.D. in Sociology (Demography) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At NCHS, Dr. Arias has worked to expand the US Life Table Program’s racial, ethnic, and geographic coverage, developing methods to address data quality limitations. Under her leadership, the program has expanded from two race groups to five race and Hispanic origin populations, annual state life tables, and life tables by census tracts. Dr. Arias also conducts research on racial and ethnic mortality disparities with a special focus on the Hispanic population.
Speaker Information
Elizabeth Arias, PhD
Organizers
Cross-Disorder Genetics of Psychiatric Disorders: Findings and Methodologic Challenges
Join us on Wednesday, March 11th for the Department of Epidemiology seminar series featuring Dr. Jordan Smoller discussing Cross-Disorder Genetics of Psychiatric Disorders: Findings and Methodologic Challenges.
Abstract: Psychiatric disorders are highly comorbid, heritable, and genetically correlated, raising fundamental questions about the nature of shared versus disorder-specific genetic influences. Large-scale genome-wide association studies and multivariate genetic models now provide compelling evidence for both pervasive pleiotropy and meaningful etiologic differentiation across major psychiatric disorders. This seminar will review key findings from recent cross-disorder genetic analyses including recent work characterizing shared and disorder-specific genetic architecture using multivariate genomic approaches. We will also discuss methodological challenges that complicate cross-disorder inference, including heterogeneity in phenotypic assessment, differences in case and control ascertainment, and selection biases inherent in clinical cohorts, electronic health records, and population biobanks. Addressing these challenges will be important for robust and clinically-meaningful inferences about the underlying structure of psychopathology.
Bio: Dr. Jordan Smoller is a psychiatrist, epidemiologist, and geneticist whose research focus has been understanding the genetic and environmental determinants of psychiatric disorders across the lifespan and using big data to advance precision mental health including improved methods to reduce risk and enhance resilience.
Dr. Smoller is Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Professor in Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. At Massachusetts General Hospital, he is the Jerrold F. Rosenbaum Endowed Chair in Psychiatry, Director of the Center for Precision Psychiatry, Director of the Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit in the Center for Genomic Medicine, and co-Director of the Center for Suicide Research and Prevention at MGH and Harvard. Dr. Smoller is a Tepper Family MGH Research Scholar and also serves as Director of the Omics Unit of the MGH Division of Clinical Research and co-Director of the Mass General Brigham Training Program in Precision and Genomic Medicine. He is an Associate Member of the Broad Institute and past President of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics.
He has played a leading role in national and international efforts to advance precision and genomic medicine. He is a Principal Investigator (PI) in the eMERGE (Electronic Medical Records and Genomics) network, founding PI of the PsycheMERGE Consortium and lead PI of the New England Precision Medicine Consortium as part of the NIH All of Us Research Program. He is also co-Chair of the Cross-Disorder Workgroup of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC). He is an author of more than 650 scientific publications and is also the author of The Other Side of Normal (HarperCollins/William Morrow, 2012).
Speaker Information
Jordan Smoller, MD, ScD
Organizers
Some Recent Results on the Epidemiology of Dementia
Join us on Wednesday, April 1st for the Department of Epidemiology seminar series featuring Dr. David Hunter discussing Some Recent Results on the Epidemiology of Dementia.
Abstract: Studies of the epidemiology of Dementia are complicated by the fact that until recently the two main subtypes – Alzheimer’s Disease and Vascular Dementia could not be readily distinguished clinically, and may have distinct etiologies. Although that has changed somewhat with the advent of PET scans and CSF biomarkers, these are not yet used in routine clinical practice that is reflected in the clinical records that are available in large-scale observational databases such as the UK Biobank. I will discuss some recent collaborative studies in the Department of Population Health at Oxford and elsewhere that both illustrate these issues, and seek to help resolve them.
Bio: David Hunter is the Richard Doll Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine and Director of the Translational Epidemiology Unit at Oxford Population Health, the Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, UK. He founded the Program in Genetic Epidemiology and Statistical Genetics at Harvard and was co-chair of the steering committee of the Breast and Prostate Cancer Cohort Consortium at the National Cancer Institute. He was co-director of the NCI Cancer Genetic Susceptibility Markers project focused on genome-wide association studies, and Dean for Academic Affairs and Acting Dean at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. He is the founding Chief Science Advisor of Our Future Health a major new national initiative in the UK that aims to return genomic information to consenting participants. He was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2021 and appointed as a Companion of the Order of Australia in the Australian King’s Birthday Honours List in 2023.
Speaker Information
David Hunter, ScD, MPH
Organizers
Brown Bag Seminar: Evidence triangulation in dementia research
Maria Glymour is professor and chair of the department of epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health. Her research examines how social factors experienced across the life-course, from infancy to adulthood, influence cognitive function, dementia, stroke, and other health outcomes in older adults. A separate theme of her research focuses on overcoming methodological problems encountered in analyses of the social determinants of health, Alzheimer’s disease, and dementia.
Speaker Information
Maria Glymour
Organizers
Community Coffee Hour
Join the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) on Thursday, February 5th for a Community Coffee Hour! Join us for an in-person gathering to meet the HHI team and learn more about their global work. All members of the Harvard community are welcome to join to kick off the new semester, build connections, and foster collaboration. This event will be held in-person only, at HSPH Building 1, Room 1208 (12th Floor) from 11a.m. -12 p.m. ET.
Please RSVP in advance here, and feel free to reach out to hhi@harvard.edu with any questions.
Organizers
Trial Augmentation Using External Data and Models: Toward Harmony Between Observational Studies and Trials
Join us on Wednesday, February 4th for the Department of Epidemiology seminar series featuring Dr. Issa Dahabreh discussing Trial Augmentation Using External Data and Models: Toward Harmony Between Observational Studies and Trials
Abstract: We introduce trial augmentation, a new approach to analyzing randomized trials that leverages external data — either historical experimental data or observational data — to improve trial efficiency without sacrificing the unbiasedness guarantee provided by randomization. We characterize a broad class of randomization-aware estimators that integrate external data through data-adaptive models (e.g., machine learning or generative models), yielding higher efficiency and statistical power than estimators based on trial data alone. Crucially, members of this class exploit randomization to remain unbiased even when the external data are misaligned with the trial population or affected by unmeasured confounding. We show that several widely used estimators, including the efficient trial-only estimator, are special cases within this framework. We further demonstrate how combining two or more randomization-aware estimators yields procedures with two key properties: (1) robustness to misalignment and unmeasured confounding in the external data, and (2) efficiency that is at least as high as, and typically higher than, that of the component estimators. We situate these results within a broader research program aimed at a more harmonious integration of observational analyses and randomized trials.
Bio: Issa Dahabreh, MD ScD is Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Section Head for Epidemiology and Data Science at the Smith Center for Outcomes Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. His research focuses on the design and analysis of randomized trials and observational studies, with an emphasis on causal inference and evidence synthesis. He also develops statistical methods that integrate diverse data sources to improve decision-making in clinical and public health settings.
Speaker Information
Issa Dahabreh, MD, ScD
Organizers
Monday Nutrition Seminar | Understanding Food Loss and Waste: Opportunities and challenges across the food supply chain
Please join the Department of Nutrition for the Monday Nutrition Seminar featuring Edward Spang, PhD, Associate Professor of Food Science and Technology at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Spang’s talk—”Understanding Food Loss and Waste: Opportunities and challenges across the food supply chain”—will take place on January 26 at 1:00pm ET on Zoom (registration is required).
Healthy snacks will be provided, thanks to the generous support of the Office of the Associate Provost for Student Affairs’ Wellbeing Fund.
The Monday Nutrition Seminar Series is free and open to the public. If you plan to attend this event and do not have an active HUID, please fill out the registration form by 3:00pm ET on 1/23/26.
Seminar speakers share their perspectives, they do not speak for Harvard.
Speaker Information
Organizers
Using Values-Based Storytelling to Shift the Public Health Conversation: A Hands-on Workshop
Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools in health communication—capable of shifting beliefs, building trust, and inspiring action. In this session, led by SBS alum Elissa Scherer (MPH-HSB ’24), we’ll explore why stories stick when facts alone fall flat, and how to harness narrative as a strategy for building community trust and public health impact. Participants will learn how to tell stories about the values that call them to their work and how to craft a narrative-based call-to-action.
This immersive, hands-on workshop is in person only—reserve your spot to join us in the room and leave ready to inspire real-world action.
This seminar is co-sponsored by the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences and the Center for Health Communication.
Speaker Information
Elissa Scherer
Organizers
When and How Best to Use Online Panels for Epidemiologic Research
Join us on Wednesday, March 4th for the Department of Epidemiology seminar series featuring Dr. Ronald Kessler discussing When and How Best to Use Online Panels for Epidemiologic Research.
Abstract: Recent years have seen a sea change in population survey methods, with online panels increasingly replacing traditional in-person and telephone surveys. A small number of vendors now offer “probability-based” online panels, in which households are recruited using probability sampling methods. The Census Bureau’s new Household Trends and Outlook Pulse Survey (HTOPS) is based on such a panel. However, most online panel providers rely on nonprobability, or “opt-in,” samples. Online panels can substantially reduce costs and shorten the time from data collection to results, addressing mounting challenges faced by traditional survey modes. At the same time, they raise important concerns about selection bias and generalizability. This is true even in probability-based panels, which typically have effective response rates in the range 2-5% (i.e., they fail to represent 95-98% of the population). Given that online panels are now a permanent feature of the research landscape, an important question is whether there is a viable middle ground between traditional probability samples and purely opt-in designs. This presentation reviews the approaches that have been proposed to find such a middle ground and describes a hybrid design now being implemented in the new round of the World Mental Health Surveys.
Bio: Ronald Kessler, Ph.D. is the McNeil Family Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. He is a psychiatric epidemiologist whose work involves implementing mental health needs assessment surveys, preventive interventions, and clinical interventions for mental disorders and suicide-related behaviors. His intervention work focuses largely on developing precision intervention rules to get the right interventions to the right patients. He is the Director of the World Mental Health Surveys, a cross-national series of community epidemiological surveys on prevalence and correlates of common mental disorders in 30 countries (https://www.hcp.med.harvard.edu/wmh/). He is also the Harvard Site PI of the Study of Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (STARRS), a coordinated series of epidemiological and neurobiological studies of social determinants of suicide-related behaviors among US Army soldiers and veterans (https://www.starrs-ls.org/), and of a series of pragmatic trials based on STARRS designed to reduce soldier suicide-related behaviors. Dr. Kessler is the author of over 1000 publications and has for many years been rated the most widely cited researcher in the field of psychiatry according to the Science-wide Author Databases of Standardized Citation Indicators. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the US National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He earned his Ph.D. in Sociology from New York University, completed a postdoctoral fellowship in psychiatric epidemiology at the University of Wisconsin, and was on the faculty at the University of Michigan before taking his current position at Harvard Medical School in 1995.
Speaker Information
Ronald Kessler, PhD
Organizers
Better Research IV: Share and Publish Data with Open Science Framework
What: An in-depth look at advanced features of Open Science Framework and how to integrate them into your research process for sharing and publishing research data. This session is a follow up to “Research Management: Data Organization and Sharing in Open Science Framework.”
Why: Using reputable and compliant tools for research management and data sharing supports reproducible practices, collaboration, and transparent research. Open Science Framework is a NIH-recognized generalist repository, is supported by Harvard Library, and is a popular choice for sharing research products throughout the research data lifecycle.
How: This is a free 1.5-hour online workshop, consisting of lecture, hands-on activity, and discussion. This class will focus on using the free platform Open Science Framework to collaborate, manage, and share your documents, datasets, and research projects. The webinar recording will be shared with all who register.
Where: Online via Zoom (link provided upon registration).
Who: This seminar is open to faculty, research staff, postdoctoral researchers, and students from all disciplines. If you were unable to attend the previous workshop in December, where we provided an introduction to OSF, you are welcome and encouraged to attend this webinar anyway.
Join your peers to meet new people and learn new skills in a welcoming and encouraging environment!