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Louisa Smith

Assistant Professor

Louisa Smith is an assistant professor in the Department of Health Sciences at Northeastern’s Bouvé College of Health Sciences and affiliate faculty at the Roux Institute. Dr. Smith is an epidemiologist who focuses on developing and applying methods for causal inference in public health research. Her work uses observational data to answer questions about effects on health, with a special focus on pregnancy and birth outcomes.

Dr. Smith received her PhD in population health sciences and an MS in biostatistics from Harvard University, as well as an MS in epidemiology from the University of California, Berkeley. Before that, she spent several years teaching elementary school in rural South Dakota and continues to be passionate about teaching.

After over a decade away, Dr. Smith is thrilled to be back in her home state of Maine, where she enjoys hiking, running, and going to the beach with her dog, Ollie.

Research Overview

Dr. Smith is part of the OHDSI Center team at the Roux Institute, where she works on using real-world data, such as insurance claims and electronic health records, to generate evidence about population health. She teaches courses on epidemiologic and biostatistical methods as part of the MS in Real World Evidence.

Areas of Expertise

  • Epidemiology
  • Biostatistics
  • Causal Inference

Publications

  • Smith LH. Selection mechanisms and their consequences: Understanding and addressing selection bias. Current Epidemiology Reports. 2020; 7(4):179–189. doi:10.1007/s40471-020-00241-6.
  • Smith LH, Mathur MB, VanderWeele TJ. Multiple-bias sensitivity analysis using bounds. Epidemiology. 2021; 32(5):625–34. doi: 10.1097/ede.0000000000001380.
  • Smith LH, Dollinger CY, VanderWeele TJ, Wyszynski DF, Hernández-Díaz S. Timing and severity of COVID-19 during pregnancy and risk of preterm birth in the International Registry of Coronavirus Exposure in Pregnancy. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. 2022; 22(1):775. doi: 10.1186/s12884-022-05101-3.
  • Smith LH, García-Albéniz X, Chan JM, Zhao S, Cowan JE, Broering JM, Cooperberg MR, Carroll PR, Hernán MA. Emulation of a target trial with sustained treatment strategies: An application to prostate cancer using both inverse probability weighting and the g-formula. European Journal of Epidemiology. 2022; 37(12):1205– 1213. doi: 10.1007/s10654-022-00929-7.
  • Smith LH, VanderWeele TJ. Bounding bias due to selection. Epidemiology. 2019; 30(4):509–516. doi: 10.1097/ede.0000000000001032.
  • Read more on Google Scholar

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