Research
Area of Focus
My lab is focused on studying adverse cardiovascular effects of common chronic diseases (hypertension, type 2 diabetes, thromboembolic disorders) and optimizing drug therapy to minimize risks of these diseases.
A major focus is on adverse effects of chronic uncontrolled blood pressure (hypertension) and ways to optimize antihypertensive drug therapy to mitigate these adverse effects. I have particular expertise in the area of treatment-resistant hypertension.
Methods
My research spans population and clinical sciences related to cardiovascular disease and its treatment.
Retrospective database studies using:
- Electronic health record (EHR) data, e.g., PCORnet
- Administrative claims data, e.g., Medicare, Medicaid, IBM Marketscan
- Existing clinical trial and prospective cohort datasets
- Complex survey data, e.g., NHANES
Prospective cohort studies through PCORnet
Clinical trials:
- Randomized, placebo-controlled trials
- Comparative effectiveness trials
- Health services research
I am also interested in research on methods for using electronic health record (EHR) data, including how to minimize misclassification when measuring longitudinal drug exposure from EHR prescribing data, and methods for dealing with missingness in EHR data and biases associated with missing data.
Funding
Current funding for the lab is through the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NIH) via our work on optimizing antihypertensive drug selection; and through the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to study the relationship between antihypertensive use and COVID-19 outcomes.
Publications
A complete list of my lab's journal publications can be found on PubMed or Google Scholar . Newer publications are also available via ORCID . If you do not have access to a particular journal, please email me (ssmith@cop.ufl.edu) for an author's print.