A graduate of the University of Washington (UW) biostatistics program, Robert Wellman, MS, joined the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI) Biostatistics Unit in 2009. His work spans a diverse collection of topics including mental health, pharmacoepidemiology, postmarketing drug safety surveillance, obesity, diagnostic test accuracy, back pain, and breast cancer. Prior to this, he spent 5 years in the Biostatistics Core at the UW Center for AIDS Research.
Causal inference; longitudinal data; diagnostic and screening test accuracy; clinical trials; survival analysis: rare disease outcomes; nonparametrics; missing data; electronic data; distributed data; statistical computing
Biostatistics; HIV/AIDS; vaccine safety
Biostatistics; clinical trials; back pain
Biostatistics; bariatric surgery
Biostatistics; breast cancer; effects of chemotherapy; accuracy of automated data; screening test accuracy; advanced imaging
Biostatistics; pharmacoepidemiology; postmarketing drug safety surveillance; big data; electronic health record and claims data
Biostatistics; suicide risk prediction, machine learning
Lewis CC, Wellman R, Jones SMW, Walsh-Bailey C, Thompson E, Derus A, Paolino A, Steiner J, De Marchis EH, Gottlieb LM, Sharp AL. Comparing the performance of two social risk screening tools in a vulnerable subpopulation. J Family Med Prim Care. 2020 30;9(9):5026-5034. doi: 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_650_20. eCollection 2020 Sep. PubMed
McTigue KM, Wellman R, Nauman E, Anau J, Coley RY, Odor A, Tice J, Coleman KJ, Courcoulas A, Pardee RE, Toh S, Janning CD, Williams N, Cook A, Sturtevant JL, Horgan C, Arterburn D. Comparing the 5-year diabetes outcomes of sleeve gastrectomy and gastric bypass: the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network (PCORNet) - Bariatric Study. JAMA Surg. 2020 May 1;155(5):e200087. doi: 10.1001/jamasurg.2020.0087. Epub 2020 May 20. PubMed
Shi X, Wellman R, Heagerty PJ, Nelson JC, Cook AJ. Safety surveillance and the estimation of risk in select populations: Flexible methods to control for confounding while targeting marginal comparisons via standardization. Stat Med. 2020;39(4):369-386. doi: 10.1002/sim.8410. Epub 2019 Dec 10. PubMed
Sherman KJ, Wellman RD, Hawkes RJ, Phelan EA, Lee T, Turner JA. T'ai Chi for chronic low back pain in older adults: a feasibility trial. J Altern Complement Med. 2020 Feb 3. doi: 10.1089/acm.2019.0438. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Courcoulas A, Coley RY, Clark JM, McBride CL, Cirelli E, McTigue K, Arterburn D, Coleman KJ, Wellman R, Anau J, Toh S, Janning CD, Cook AJ, Williams N, Sturtevant JL, Horgan C, Tavakkoli A. Interventions and operations 5 years after bariatric surgery in a cohort from US National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network Bariatric Study. JAMA Surg. 2020 Jan 15. pii: 2758646. doi: 10.1001/jamasurg.2019.5470. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Models that are easier to explain, use could have better uptake in health care settings.
A study among KP members with sleep problems and osteoarthritis shows promise for overcoming obstacles to treatment.
Watch video on latest results from PCORnet Bariatric Study. (Spoiler alert: Bypass, not sleeve.)