Season 1, Episode 9: Causal Epidemiology, Part One with Dr. Robert Platt
Welcome to Episode 9 of Season 1 of the Emerging Scholar Podcast!
This the final chapter in our three-part series on introducing different epidemiological approaches to answering clinical questions. We're joined for the first in a two-part series on Causal Epidemiology with Dr. Robert Platt, a professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health at McGill University. Dr. Platt is a senior investigator at the McGill University Health Center, the Lady Davis Institute at the Jewish General Hospital, and a leading expert in pharmacoepidemiology. He holds the Albert Behringer Endowed Chair in Pharmacoepidemiology and is a pioneering figure in causal epidemiology in Canada.
Dr. Platt explains the core assumptions behind causal inference and introduces target trial emulation, an emerging method he’s helped develop. We discuss how this approach can be applied to answer complex questions in pharmacoepidemiology, particularly in maternal and child health.
Papers & Resources That We Touched On In This Episode:
- Overview of Causal Inference
- Marginal Structural Models
- Marginal structural models: The Example of Warfarin Use and Risk of Bleeding
- Target Trial Emulation
- PROBIT Breastfeeding Trial
- Methods for Perinatal Epidemiology (Kramer and Platt)
- Recommended Reading: Miguel Hernan and Jamie Robin's - What If?
- Paul Holland: Intro to Casual Inference
Guests
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Dr. Robert Platt
Robert Platt is Professor in the departments of Pediatrics and of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health (EBOH) at McGill University. He is a Senior Investigator at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre and the Lady Davis Institute of the Jewish General Hospital, and Investigator at the McGill Pharmacoepidemiology Research Unit, and holds the Albert Boehringer I endowed chair in Pharmacoepidemiology. Prof. Platt is the Principal Investigator and leader of the Canadian Network for Observational Drug Effect Studies (CNODES). His research focuses on improving methods for the study of medications using administrative data, with an emphasis on methods for causal inference and a substantive focus on medications in pregnancy. Prof. Platt is on editor-in-chief of Statistics in Medicine and is on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Epidemiology and Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety. He has published over 400 articles, one book and several book chapters on biostatistics and epidemiology.