Vaccines are one of our best tools to protect public health
Vaccines are rigorously evaluated before and after they are approved for public use to ensure they are safe and effective. Data continue to be collected as vaccines are used to allow for continuous monitoring and evaluation in different settings.
The Vaccine Evaluation team at CIDMATH, led by Dr. Elizabeth Rogawski McQuade, is dedicated to understanding the real-world effectiveness of vaccines in preventing the spread of infectious diseases through the development and application of innovative, rigorous, and efficient methods to evaluate how well vaccines work outside of clinical trials. This research is crucial in shaping public health policies and vaccination strategies.
Projects
Novel Method: Estimating Vaccine Effectiveness Without Matching Â
Traditional observational studies often rely on matching vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals based on characteristics like age or health status. However, this method can introduce bias and is inefficient for studying rare outcomes. Â
Pioneered by Emily Wu and Dr. David Benkeser, the team has developed a novel approach using target trial emulation without matching. This method uses advanced statistical models to create a causal framework for estimating vaccine effectiveness, minimizing bias and significantly improving the precision of our estimates, especially for critical but rare health events. Â
Applying the Method: Evaluating New RSV Interventions for Infants Â
CIDMATH researchers are applying the novel methodology to an area of urgent public health need: Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). RSV is a leading cause of severe respiratory illness, such as bronchiolitis and pneumonia, in infants and young children worldwide. The 2023-2024 season marked a major turning point with the introduction of two new preventative interventions: Â
- A maternal vaccine administered during pregnancy to protect infants from birth Â
- A long-acting monoclonal antibody given directly to infants before their first RSV season
Partnering with Kaiser Permanente Georgia, the Vaccine Evaluation Team, spearheaded by Sara Kim, uses data from the KPGA integrated health system to evaluate RSV vaccine effectiveness in maternal and infant monoclonal antibody. The KPGA data provides information on the mother’s pregnancy, along with received vaccinations. This is powerful to understand the drivers behind interventions that infants should receive and allows for a nuanced analysis of their performance.
Using the MarketScan database, a dataset that provides a national view of healthcare claims data, the team will assess RSV intervention effectiveness. This project is positioned to examine population-level trends over time to offer insights on factors like circulating virus strains and shifting vaccination rates.
Latest Works
Preprint: Target trial emulation without matching: a more efficient approach for evaluating vaccine effectiveness using observational data
Emily Wu, Elizabeth Rogawski McQuade, Mats Stensrud, Razieh Nabi, David Benkeser
Preprint: Vaccine efficacy against naturally asymptomatic infections: A novel estimand for quantifying vaccine effects
Elizabeth Rogawski McQuade, Razieh Nabi, Allison Codi, Natalie Dean, Marc Lipsitch, David Benkeser
TEAM
Elizabeth Rogawski McQuade, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, Co-Investigator, CIDMATH
Contact
Publication Link
Emory Profile
David Benkeser, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, Co-Investigator, CIDMATH
Natalie Dean, PhD
Deputy Director and Co-Principal Investigator
Associate Professor, Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health
Veronika Zarnitsyna, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Emory University School of Medicine, Co-Investigator, CIDMATH
Razieh Nabi, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics
Emily Wu, BS
PhD student, Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, CIDMATH
Sara Kim, MPH
PhD student, Department of Epidemiology, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, CIDMATH