Rod Walker, MS

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“I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to provide biostatistical support across a wide range of KPWHRI collaborations that contribute to public health knowledge and improve health care for patients.”

Rod Walker, MS

Principal Collaborative Biostatistician, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute

Rod.L.Walker@kp.org
206-287-2895

Biography

Rod Walker, MS, has developed a diverse research portfolio in his 10+ years working as a biostatistician at KPWHRI. His varied interests have led to collaborations in women's health, cancer, aging and geriatrics, pharmacoepidemiology, opioids research, and mental health. During his tenure he has served as an analyst for the Statistical Coordinating Center for the National Cancer Institute's Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium, evaluated the impact of health system initiatives to reduce risk associated with chronic opioid therapy prescribing, and investigated potential associations between different medications classes and a wide range of outcomes such as pneumonia, fall-related injury, and dementia.

One of Mr. Walker’s longest-running collaborations is with the Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) study, an ongoing longitudinal cohort study seeking to bolster knowledge of risk factors related to dementia, Alzheimer's disease, and healthy aging. As this project and related studies have grown, he has contributed to analyses of associations between medication use and laboratory values and cognitive outcomes within this cohort of older adults, extended this research to associations with neuropathology measures among autopsied individuals, and helped process and analyze activity monitoring data generated from devices worn by ACT participants. Continued collaboration with ACT-related investigators is a highlight of his research at KPWHRI, as the ACT study provides many avenues for increasing public health knowledge of issues relevant for older adults.

A relatively new area of collaboration for Mr. Walker is with researchers from the Mental Health Research Network seeking to use information captured in electronic health records to predict risk of suicide attempt and suicide death. He has appreciated learning from other investigators and biostatisticians on this project, expanding his knowledge in machine learning and risk prediction, as well as in potential issues surrounding health informatics and implementation of tools into clinical workflows. He looks forward to continued opportunities within this research area to address important public health issues in mental and behavioral health.

Research interests and experience

  • Biostatistics

    Survival and longitudinal data analysis; epidemiology; machine learning; two-phase sampling

  • Aging & Geriatrics

    Biostatistics; cognitive health and dementia; neuropathologic correlates of dementia; factors associated with healthy aging

  • Health Informatics

     

  • Mental Health

    Biostatistics; suicide risk prediction; interventions for risk reduction; machine learning and health informatics

  • Medication Use & Patient Safety

    Biostatistics; pharmacoepidemiology; medication safety in older adults; opioids and chronic pain

  • Women's Health

Recent publications

Rasouli B, Chubak J, Floyd JS, Psaty BM, Nguyen M, Walker RL, Wiggins KL, Logan RW, Danaei G. Combining high quality data with rigorous methods: Emulation of a target trial using electronic health records and a nested case-control design. BMJ. 2023;383:e072346. doi: 10.1136/bmj-2022-072346.  PubMed

Hyde ET, Tuz-Zahra F, Moore CC, Natarajan L, Nguyen S, Greenwood-Hickman MA, Walker RL, Rosenberg DE, Bellettiere J. Agreement of step-based metrics from ActiGraph and activPAL accelerometers worn concurrently among older adults. J Meas Phys Behav. 2022 Dec;5(4):242-251. doi: 10.1123/jmpb.2022-0001. Epub 2022 Oct 11. PubMed

Gibbons LE, Power MC, Walker RL, Kumar RG, Murphy A, Latimer CS, Nolan AL, Melief EJ, Beller A, Bogdani M, Keene D, Larson EB, Crane PK, Dams-O'Connor K. Association of traumatic brain injury with late life neuropathological outcomes in a community-based cohort. J Alzheimers Dis. 2023 Apr 28. doi: 10.3233/JAD-221224. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed

Shortreed SM, Walker RL, Johnson E, Wellman R, Cruz M, Ziebell R, Coley RY, Yaseen ZS, Dharmarajan S, Penfold RB, Ahmedani BK, Rossom RC, Beck A, Boggs JM, Simon GE. Complex modeling with detailed temporal predictors does not improve health records-based suicide risk prediction.  NPJ Digit Med. 2023;6(1):47. doi: 10.1038/s41746-023-00772-4.  PubMed

Floyd JS, Walker RL, Kuntz JL, Shortreed SM, Fortmann SP, Bayliss EA, Harrington LB, Fuller S, Albertson-Junkans LH, Powers JD, Lee MH, Temposky LA, Dublin S. Association between diabetes severity and risks of COVID-19 infection and outcomes. J Gen Intern Med.2023 May;38(6):1484-1492. doi: 10.1007/s11606-023-08076-9. Epub 2023 Feb 16. PubMed

 

Research

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Traumatic brain injury raises risk of brain atrophy

Study suggests pathology of brain cell loss after traumatic head injury is distinct from Alzheimer’s disease.

New findings

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Simpler models to identify suicide risk perform similarly to more complex ones

Models that are easier to explain, use could have better uptake in health care settings.

COVID-19

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Greater infection risks linked to COVID-19 disparities

New work by Susan Shortreed, PhD, finds infection risks drive worse outcomes for some racial and ethnic groups.