Susan Shortreed, PhD

“By using rich data sources such as electronic health records, we can begin to identify which treatments will work best for which people.”

Susan M. Shortreed, PhD

Senior Biostatistics Investigator, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute
Affiliate Professor, Department of Biostatistics, University of Washington

Susan.M.Shortreed@kp.org
206-287-2088

Curriculum vitae (CV)

Biography

Susan Shortreed, PhD, uses statistics and machine learning methods to address health science problems, with a special emphasis on analyzing complex longitudinal data. She develops and evaluates statistical approaches for observational data and works to improve the design and analyses of studies that use data collected from electronic health care records. She led a project to develop statistical methods for constructing personalized treatment strategies using data captured from electronic health records.

Dr. Shortreed earned her PhD in statistics from the University of Washington. Then she spent two years in the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and two years in the School of Computer Science at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Dr. Shortreed has collaborated with scientists in a broad range of areas including alcohol use, cancer screening, and medication safety. She now works alongside researchers in mental and behavioral health, evaluating and comparing treatments for chronic pain and depression, and interventions to prevent suicide. Dr. Shortreed is the Analytic Methods Core Lead the Mental Health Research Network, helping to design studies to address important public health concerns, such as determining which antidepressant medications work best for which patients and developing risk prediction algorithms to identify individuals who may be at increased risk for suicide.

Dr. Shortreed is also an affiliate professor of biostatistics at the University of Washington School of Public Health. She served on the executive board for the American Statistical Association’s Mental Health Statistics Section and the editorial boards for Observational Studies and Biometrics.

Research interests and experience

Biostatistics

Design and analysis of studies that use data collected from electronic health records; analysis of complex longitudinal data; methods for constructing personalized treatment strategies, computational statistics and algorithms; machine learning; variable selection methods.

Medication Use & Patient Safety

Biostatistics; machine learning; using data collected from electronic health records to study rare adverse events; opioid safety; medication safety in pregnancy.
Mental Health

Biostatistics; treatment for chronic depression; suicide prevention; developing personalized treatment strategies; developing risk prediction models.

Recent publications

Cruz M, Shortreed SM, Richards JE, Coley RY, Yarborough BJ, Walker RL, Johnson E, Ahmedani BK, Rossom R, Coleman KJ, Boggs JM, Beck AL, Simon GE Machine Learning Prediction of Suicide Risk Does Not Identify Patients Without Traditional Risk Factors 2022 Aug 31;83(5). doi: 10.4088/JCP.21m14178. Epub 2022-08-31. PubMed

Moodie EEM, Coulombe J, Danieli C, Renoux C, Shortreed SM Privacy-preserving estimation of an optimal individualized treatment rule: a case study in maximizing time to severe depression-related outcomes 2022 Jul;28(3):512-542. doi: 10.1007/s10985-022-09554-8. Epub 2022-05-02. PubMed

Dublin S, Idu A, Avalos LA, Cheetham TC, Easterling TR, Chen L, Holt VL, Nance N, Bider-Canfield Z, Neugebauer RS, Reynolds K, Badon SE, Shortreed SM Maternal and neonatal outcomes of antihypertensive treatment in pregnancy: A retrospective cohort study 2022 May 16;17(5):e0268284. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0268284. Epub 2022-05-16. PubMed

Muench J, Hoopes M, Mayhew M, Pisciotta M, Shortreed SM, Livingston CJ, Von Korff M, DeBar LL Reduction of Long-Term Opioid Prescribing for Back Pain in Community Health Centers After a Medicaid Policy Change 2022 Mar;35(2):352-369. doi: 10.3122/jabfm.2022.02.210306. PubMed

Wu J, Galanter N, Shortreed SM, Moodie EEM Ranking tailoring variables for constructing individualized treatment rules: an application to schizophrenia 2022 Mar;71(2):309-330. doi: 10.1111/rssc.12533. Epub 2022-03-20. PubMed

Simon GE, Shortreed SM, Rossom RC, Beck A, Clarke GN, Whiteside U, Richards JE, Penfold RB, Boggs JM, Smith J Effect of Offering Care Management or Online Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Training vs Usual Care on Self-harm Among Adult Outpatients With Suicidal Ideation: A Randomized Clinical Trial 2022 Feb 15;327(7):630-638. doi: 10.1001/jama.2022.0423. PubMed

Penfold RB, Johnson E, Shortreed SM, Ziebell RA, Lynch FL, Clarke GN, Coleman KJ, Waitzfelder BE, Beck AL, Rossom RC, Ahmedani BK, Simon GE Predicting suicide attempts and suicide deaths among adolescents following outpatient visits 2021 Nov;294:39-47. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2021.06.057. Epub 2021-07-01. PubMed

Penfold RB, Whiteside U, Johnson EE, Stewart CC, Oliver MM, Shortreed SM, Beck A, Coleman KJ, Rossom RC, Lawrence JM, Simon GE Utility of item 9 of the patient health questionnaire in the prospective identification of adolescents at risk of suicide attempt 2021 Oct;51(5):854-863. doi: 10.1111/sltb.12751. Epub 2021-07-31. PubMed

Coley RY, Walker RL, Cruz M, Simon GE, Shortreed SM Clinical risk prediction models and informative cluster size: Assessing the performance of a suicide risk prediction algorithm 2021 Oct;63(7):1375-1388. doi: 10.1002/bimj.202000199. Epub 2021-05-24. PubMed

Simon GE, Shortreed SM, DeBar LL Zelen design clinical trials: why, when, and how 2021 Aug 17;22(1):541. doi: 10.1186/s13063-021-05517-w. Epub 2021-08-17. PubMed