I wrote a LinkedIn post on advice for incoming Master's students in public health and epidemiology. tl;dr: do hard things, get help when needed, make friends and thank people, and have fun - it's amazing. #EpiSky #DataSciSky #PublicHealth #GradSchool Full article: bit.ly/4neVYlE

The @busph.bsky.social PROGRESS Initiative journal club hosting Dr. Chase Latour from UNC Chapel Hill Epi for her paper on healthy births as censoring versus competing events in studies of prenatal medication use. sites.bu.edu/progressinit... onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezproxy.bu.edu/doi/10.1111/...

Potential paediatric tuberculosis incidence and deaths resulting from interruption in programmes supported by international health aid, 2025–34: a mathematical modelling study - The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Such a cool paper. #EpiSky @amjepi.bsky.social #DataScience #Reproducibility Led by @sfackley.bsky.social at @brown-epi.bsky.social Research on reproducible research funded by NIH/NIA - thank you!

🔁 ICYMI: TIME-AD introduces the AI-Y Checklist, a framework for evaluating the development and deployment of AI tools in population health through an ethical lens. 🔗 Check it out: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

In this podcast w/ Dr. Salma Abdalla, we discussed dementia epi (including Piller's book "Doctored"), choosing health research topics, non-causal studies and... It was fun, tho without the video you can't appreciate the Flour Bakery product placement. bit.ly/485sC4x #publichealth #EpiSky #EndAlz

P-hacking or power improvements? Sarah Ackley examined trends in p-value distributions in epi journals and compared to distributions expected under p-hacking vs changes in statistical power over 20 years. #EpiSky #DataScience #MetaSci #Reproducibility

Nice defense of diversity from Oklahoma of all places: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/o...

Final report-outs from #ΨMCA2025 -Workgroup 3 focused on using synthetic data: can we regenerate the features of the original data using either sythpop or Q-net (large science model). #EpiSky #DataSci #EndAlz #NIA

Final report-outs from #ΨMCA2025- this is always amazing to see how much people have done in <4 days -Workgroup 2 focused on statistical power needed to fulfill #NAPA (bit.ly/4mpQgNK) and #NASEM (bit.ly/3UvnVcu) goals for ADRD research. #EpiSky #DataSciSky #EndAlz #NIA

Final report-outs from #ΨMCA2025- this is always amazing to see how much people have done in <4 days -Workgroup 1 focused on measurement error in mediation effect estimates. First q: Measurement error on income and estimated mediation of education-->cognition. #EpiSky #DataSci #EndAlz #NIA

Such a great scene at #ΨMCA2025 as usual. This year's workshop focuses on issues central to evidence triangulation, including synthetic data, cross-walking between measures used in different studies, and formalizing the research infrastructure (samples) needed to fulfill #NAPA and #EndAlz

This is not how we achieve this goal: bsky.app/profile/pozm...

Neither is this: www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/msf-p...

woh- this surprised me. The NIH director thinks we can end the HIV epidemic by 2029 and notes this was President Trump's prediction some years ago, when it seemed wildly optimistic. youtu.be/Qtt80qfdGyU?... I hope he means end it globally. #EpiSky #PublicHealth #NIH #ImplementationScience

Belatedly enjoying Kowall et al multi-analyst paper rdcu.be/ey1uI & Rohrer etal commentary: rdcu.be/ey1uH. A quibble: the trope "these analyses answer different questions". Rather, I'd say the analyses answer the question posed under very different assumptions. #EpiSky #DataSci #ReproducibleResearch

I asked my mom to guess at the NCI payline - she thought 40th percentile? Maybe 60th? Right now they anticipate funding up to the 4th percentile. Can folks point me to their NCI-funded research (from past years) that had a worse score than the 4th %ile? What are we losing? #Cancer #EpiSky #NIH

What can pharma do *now* - with data they already have in their files but have not yet shared with other researchers- to learn how to treat AD? Sarah Ackley illustrates with data from the A4 trial (one of few w/ full data release). @fda.gov get the data. Use the data. #EndAlz

Can only hide AI for one session at a time. Driving me bonkers.

Dear Adobe: Your AI assistant is possibly the most irritating invention since the frigging microsoft paperclip. Please stop pushing it. I bet it has collectively reduced efficiency of all Adobe users by 10% - in part because of the pure fury of having to try repeatedly to get rid of it. @adobe.com

This paper from Mary thoma @ucsf-bchsi.bsky.social phd student was lots of fun. Now out in @amjepi.bsky.social

🧠 TIME-AD is now on Bluesky! #TIME-AD brings together results from different study designs and populations to find what really works to prevent and delay dementia. Follow along as we share what we’re learning and check out our website to learn more: www.time-ad.org #EndALZ #EpiSky #NeuroSky

Thanks to the Oklahoman newspaper for publishing my Opinion piece about the devastating losses in Kerr County. bit.ly/44CFFZl In case people have a hard time accessing the oklahoman, I read it aloud here: on.soundcloud.com/LyVOzvWTjOwv...

A good peer reviewer - who engages thoughtfully and constructively, teaches, notes what's good about a paper and what can be improved - is such a positive force. As a mentor (and as an editor and an author), I send out deep thanks to everyone who works hard to write kind and useful reviews.

Summary Table of the massive defunding of biomedical research in the United States www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Just read this nice paper on predicting conversion from MCI to dementia in real world data (from the VA and replicated outside the VA). Great illustration of using synthetic data. From #VA in Phoenix w/ #NSF funding #EpiSky #EndAlz #RealWorldData alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Dear BMJ and Manuscript Central- I just spent half the time I had allocated to review the manuscript trying to log into your system and complete the required form with an opaque website that kept erasing my selections. Please update it. It is so irritating. @episky.bsky.social @bmj.com

"When we cut these programs, we're not trimming fat — we're cutting into the muscle that keeps America strong and competitive." Hailey Robertson re NSF graduate research training budget cuts.

Strong call for better evaluation of amyloid as a surrogate marker from Sarah Ackley-she shows how to do it with individual level trial data. @fda.gov should require release of *all* individual level data from the anti-amyloid RCTs to evaluate the surrogate. Could do it today. #MELODEM2025 #EndAlz

Congrats to Scott Zimmerman, Jackie Torres & colleages on TIME-AD (www.time-ad.org) on their new pub: "The Association of Alzheimer’s Disease Genetic Risk with Social Connectedness in Middle- And Older-Ages" doi.org/10.1093/aje/... #EpiSky #EndAlz

I wish some of the folks with terminated grants- especially Harvard, Columbia folks - would post the summary statements from NIH study sections about their grants. The public should know what independent scientists thought about the projects that are being terminated. #PublicHealth #EpiSky #EndAlz

Thanks to The Oklahoman (www.oklahoman.com) for running my opinions on the new budget and impacts on Alzheimer's research (bit.ly/4mZXrg7) and public health progress for all of us. #PublicHealth #EndAlzheimers #Epidemiology #ScienceHomecoming

Thanks to the Tulsa World for running my essay on the importance of federal data! #PublicHealth #Epidemiology #PRAMS #CDC #DataScience #ScienceHomecoming "We must rely on the kindness — and data — of strangers" tulsaworld.com/opinion/colu...

This seems better than nothing: grants.nih.gov/news-events/... But since it's a 1-2 year task to apply for and secure a career development award, most folks would just be getting a new award at the time when they should be transitioning to the next career stage. Still a huge setback.

Really enjoyed visiting Aarhus University to give the Ipsen-Olsen lecture. Amazing health research happening in Denmark, especially for women and children with the Danish National Birth Cohort, led by Dr Cecilia Ramlau-Hansen. Thanks for the invitation to visit and warm welcome! bit.ly/3H5LaGn

Thinking today about the visionary Richard Suzman, who saw the necessity of cross-national data to understand health in the US and embedded values of data & research sharing in HRS and intn'l sister studies. A credit to #NIA and a force still. #PublicHealth #EpiSky www.nytimes.com/2015/05/01/h...

T32 training tables are the *worst*. The only saving grace is it gives me an excuse to see what former students are up to. And so often, they are doing really fabulous work.(side note: former students, send news-I bet I'm not the only grumpy old mentor whose day is brightened to see your work).

Also will highlight that scientists who received these awards were on pathways to leading others and even more research success. The demographics of Full Professors, Chairs, Deans, etc., are all still pretty homogeneous. Losing training awards will make it even harder to change that.

It's infuriating that grant mechanisms intended to improve diversity in science are frozen-those apps are identical to other career development award apps-but we advised students from underrepresented groups to apply to the special mechanism. And now they, specifically, are losing their funding.

Considering pursuing a grad degree to strengthen your research skills? Sign up for "R You Ready? An interactive applied R session" to learn about the 1-year MS in Epi at BU: bit.ly/4mbLF1A (honestly, it'll be fun...Drs. Shiba and Stokes are fantastic teachers). More info on the MS: bit.ly/4k65Tbe

Watching Scott Zimmerman and Erin Ferguson lead a workshop on reproducible research and multiverse analysis. It's their practice for a workshop at #EpiResearch #SER 2025. epiresearch.org/annual-meeti... Drawing on Erin's paper: link.springer.com/article/10.1... So cool.

This Thursday I will give a talk on (causal) mediation analysis -- happy to have finally worked out what I want to tell people. And happy to pilot a new mode of slide sharing: just putting them on my website (juliarohrer.com/resources/)

Nice substack from Sandro Galea: open.substack.com/pub/sandroga...

The discussion of the new NIH initiative (driven by Secretary Kennedy) to examining the causes of the increased rate of autism (diagnosis) is giving me a case of severe dèjú vu (among other feelings) 1/n

The Hackathon for Health Equity is kind of amazing - a bunch of super BU undergrads excited about data & public health - amazing flash intro to epi from the phenomenal teacher Emily Goldmann. And our fab mentors showing up on a Saturday morning. sites.bu.edu/healthhack/

Nifty to see the new Civic Science Communications program at BU: www.bu.edu/com/academic...

It would be scientifically catastrophic to end this decades long study with 42k women continuing to be followed up, providing unique opportunities to learn new insights into women’s health and characterize risk of many health ailments including chronic disease www.science.org/content/arti...

I love this Michael Lewis book "Who Is Government" so much. I even loved it *before* they got to the epidemiologist. These essays were previously published in the Wash Post but it's terrific to have them all together. Especially now. www.michaellewiswrites.com #EpiSky #AcademicSky #PublicHealth

I am loving our department's EpiInformatics Thursdays. Today's focus: making figures, led by Dr. Maggie Lind, with MPH students from the Epi Excellence Path, PhD students, research staff, and faculty all participating. Possibly we'll get to see Dr. Lind's favorite data viz color palettes?

Nice response to grant terminations: “The NIH called my health equity research ‘antithetical to scientific inquiry’ “ www.statnews.com/2025/04/15/n... via @statnews.com