Outcomes Research Lab
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About
The outcomes research lab takes a health services approach to the analysis of neurosurgical data to understand trends in health resource utilization, complications, costs, and comparative effectiveness in the medical and surgical management of neurosurgical disease. The primary approach is through the analysis of observation data either retrospectively or prospectively collected. We realize the limitations of observational studies but also know how difficult it is to complete randomized clinical trials of surgical interventions therefore observational studies have an important role to play and causal inferences can be drawn from observational studies that are properly designed.
A variety of methodological approaches including supervised methods (i.e. regression, classification), unsupervised methods (i.e. cluster analysis, support vector machine, association rules) for evaluation of associations and predictive modeling; an array of bias reduction techniques (i.e. propensity score, instrumental variables); different types of studies (i.e. cohort, case-control studies, systematic reviews, meta-analyses) are utilized. Directed acrylic graphs are used to draw strong inferences and infer causality where appropriate. Prospective observation studies and randomized clinical trials are performed as needed but a majority of the effort is in retrospective cohort studies with analysis of existing data and appropriate methodological rigor is brought to overcome confounding biases and draw strong inferences.
Key Research Areas
- Comparative effectiveness research
- Neuroinformatics
- AI and machine learning prediction of neurosurgical outcomes and decision making
- Neuro data science
- Clinical research in neurosurgery
- Evaluation of neurosurgical outcomes
- Predictive analytics of neurosurgical care
- Medical device innovation
- Neurosurgical health services research
- Spine outcomes research
Team
Maxwell Boakye, MD, MPH, MBA FACS – Lab Founder and Director, Professor of Neurological Surgery at UofL
Beatrice Ugiliweneza, PhD, MSPH – Biostatistics Team, Associate Professor of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology at UofL
Maiying Kong, PhD - Biostatistics Methodologists Collaborator, Professor of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics at UofL
KB Kulasekera, PhD- Biostatistics Methodologists Collaborator, Chair and Professor of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics at UofL
Jose Fernandez - Health Economics and Policy Collaborator, Chair and Professor of Economics at UofL
Brian Williams, MD - Co-Investigators and Collaborator, Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at UofL
Stephen Skirboll, MD -Co-Investigators and Collaborator, Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at Stanford
Doniel Drazin, MD - Spine Outcomes Research, Neurosurgeon
Isaac Karikari, MD - Spine Outcomes Research, Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences
Miriam Nuno, PhD - Spine Outcomes Research, Associate Professor of Biostatistics at UC Davis Medical Center
Dale Ding, MD - Vascular Outcomes Research, Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at UofL
Joseph Neimat, MD - Functional Outcomes Research, Professor and Chair of Department of Neurosurgery at UofL
Shivanand Lad - Functional Outcomes Research, Professor of Neurosurgery at Duke University
Emily Sieg, MD - Neurotrauma Outcomes Research, Associate Professor of Neurological Surgery at UofL
Recent Publications
1: Dietz N, Kumar C, Elsamadicy AA, Bjurström MF, Wong K, Jamieson A, Sharma M,
Wang D, Ugiliweneza B, Drazin D, Boakye M. Polypharmacy in elective lumbar
spinal surgery for degenerative conditions with 24-month follow-up. Sci Rep.
2024 Oct 25;14(1):25340. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-76248-6. PMID: 39455709; PMCID:
PMC11511981.
2: Giovanazzi S, Ugiliweneza B, Alvarez E, Boakye M, Kaelin D, Nelson MB.
Rehabilitation utilization in malignant primary brain tumors compared to stroke
and traumatic brain injury: Analysis using a large claim database. Neurooncol
Pract. 2024 Jul 16;11(6):803-812. doi: 10.1093/nop/npae064. PMID: 39554790;
PMCID: PMC11567749.
3: Sharma M, Scott V, Ugiliweneza B, Wang D, Boakye M, Neimat J, Sreenivasan S.
National trends of Laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) and Vagus Nerve
stimulation (VNS) for refractory epilepsy in adult patients: A Nationwide
Inpatient Sample based propensity score matched analysis. J Clin Neurosci. 2024
Nov 25;131:110932. doi: 10.1016/j.jocn.2024.110932. Epub ahead of print. PMID:
39591697.
4: Sreenivasan S, Kaoutzani L, Ugiliweneza B, Boakye M, Schulder M, Sharma M.
Cannabis and Craniotomy for Glioblastoma: Impact on Complications and Health
Care Utilization. World Neurosurg. 2024 Oct;190:e707-e715. doi:
10.1016/j.wneu.2024.07.210. Epub 2024 Aug 5. PMID: 39111656.
5: Dietz N, Alkin V, Agarwal N, Bjurström MF, Ugiliweneza B, Wang D, Sharma M,
Drazin D, Boakye M. Polypharmacy in spinal cord injury: Matched cohort analysis
comparing drug classes, medical complications, and healthcare utilization
metrics with 24-month follow-up. J Spinal Cord Med. 2024 Jul 22:1-10. doi:
10.1080/10790268.2024.2375892. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39037335.
6: Vessell M, Willett A, Ugiliweneza B, Sharma M, Mutchnick I, Boakye M, Chern
J, Weiner H, Neimat J. National 22-year epilepsy surgery landscape shows
increasing open and minimally invasive pediatric epilepsy surgery. Epilepsia.
2024 Aug;65(8):2423-2437. doi: 10.1111/epi.18030. Epub 2024 Jun 29. PMID:
38943543.
7: Ugiliweneza B, Wang D, Rood B, Boakye M, Castillo C, Hetman M. Increased
Incidence of Depression and Chronic Pain in Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury
Patients With Pre-Injury Alcohol Use Disorder: Longitudinal Analysis of
Insurance Claim Database. Neurotrauma Rep. 2024 Jan 12;5(1):28-36. doi:
10.1089/neur.2023.0096. PMID: 38249325; PMCID: PMC10797174.
8: Dietz N, Alkin V, Agarwal N, Sharma M, Oxford BG, Wang D, Ugiliweneza B,
Mettille J, Boakye M, Drazin D. Cannabis Use Disorder Trends and Health Care
Utilization After Cervical and Lumbar Spine Fusions. Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2024
Feb 15;49(4):E28-E45. doi: 10.1097/BRS.0000000000004874. Epub 2023 Nov 10. PMID:
37962203.
9: Dadey DYA, Medress ZA, Sharma M, Ugiliweneza B, Wang D, Rodrigues A, Parker
J, Burton E, Williams B, Han SS, Boakye M, Skirboll S. Risk of developing
glioblastoma following non-CNS primary cancer: a SEER analysis between 2000 and
2018. J Neurooncol. 2023 Sep;164(3):655-662. doi: 10.1007/s11060-023-04460-x.
Epub 2023 Oct 4. PMID: 37792220.
10: Ahmed RU, Medina-Aguinaga D, Adams S, Knibbe CA, Morgan M, Gibson D, Kim JW,
Sharma M, Chopra M, Davison S, Sherwood LC, Negahdar MJ, Bert R, Ugiliweneza B,
Hubscher C, Budde MD, Xu J, Boakye M. Predictive values of spinal cord diffusion
magnetic resonance imaging to characterize outcomes after contusion injury. Ann
Clin Transl Neurol. 2023 Sep;10(9):1647-1661. doi: 10.1002/acn3.51855. Epub 2023
Jul 27. PMID: 37501362; PMCID: PMC10502634.