Biography

I am a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Mayeda’s research group at the Department of Epidemiology, Fielding School of Public health, University of California Los Angeles. My work focuses on how to extend the target trial framework and causal inference methods to study social determinants and cardiometabolic disorders in aging related outcomes, with a special interest in selection bias and competing events. I am also an RStudio Certified Instructor.

I keep my heart close to my home in La Paz, Bolivia.

Interests

  • Epidemiology
  • Causal inference
  • Global health
  • R
  • Reproducibility and Open science

Education

  • PhD in Epidemiology, 2022

    Erasmus MC

  • Graduate Degree. Specialization in Statistics for Health Sciences, 2017

    Instituto de Calculo. Universidad de Buenos Aires

  • Master Degree in Clinical Research, 2015

    Instituto del Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires

  • Doctor of Medicine, 2013

    Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Mayor de San Andres

Recent Posts

PhD Done

In June 8th of 2022, one of the most important moments of my career took place: defending my doctoral thesis and “receiving” my diploma as a PhD in Epidemiology!
Last updated on Sep 20, 2022 2 min read phdlife

Communities of practice

Why to join a community of practice?
Dec 1, 2020 6 min read communities, R-Ladies, Reproducibility
Communities of practice

Recent Publications

Selection Bias in Health Research: Quantifying, Eliminating, or Exacerbating Health Disparities?

Purpose of Review: To summarize recent literature on selection bias in disparities research addressing either descriptive or causal questions, with examples from dementia research. Recent Findings: Defining a clear estimand, including the target population, is essential to assess whether generalizability bias or collider-stratification bias is a threat to inferences.
DOI original v.
Selection Bias in Health Research: Quantifying, Eliminating, or Exacerbating Health Disparities?

Considering questions before methods in dementia research with competing events and causal goals

Studying causal exposure effects on dementia is challenging when death is a competing event. Researchers often interpret death as a potential source of bias, though bias cannot be defined or assessed if the causal question is not explicitly specified.
DOI code
Considering questions before methods in dementia research with competing events and causal goals

Invited Commentary: Conducting and Emulating Trials to Study Effects of Social Interventions

All else being equal, if we had 1 causal effect we wished to estimate, we would conduct a randomized trial with a protocol that mapped onto that causal question, or we would attempt to emulate that target trial with observational data.
DOI original v.

In the midst of two realities

This commentary is part of the Special Section of the first volume of 2021 of the journal Epidemiology.
DOI original v. translated v.
In the midst of two realities

Hypothetical blood-pressure-lowering interventions and risk of stroke and dementia

We aimed to study the effects of hypothetical interventions on systolic blood pressure (SBP) and smoking on risk of stroke and dementia using data from 15 years of follow-up in the Rotterdam Study.
DOI original v. translated v. code
See all publications

Recent Talks

Considering questions before methods in dementia research with competing events and causal goals

I presented this talk in the Topic-contributted paper session: ” “Improving Methods for Alzheimer’s Disease/Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (AD/ADRD)”, at the Joint Statistical Meeting 2023, held in Toronto, Canada.
Aug 8, 2023 12:00 AM
Slides conference agenda

Target trial emulation for the study of social determinants in dementia research

I presented this talk in the Symposia: “Specifying and emulating target trials to estimate causal effects of complex exposures”, at the Society for Epidemiologic Research Conference 2023, held in Portland, OR, USA.
Aug 8, 2023 12:00 AM
Slides conference agenda

In the midst of two realities

I presented this talk at the Symposia: What has it meant to be an epidemiologist in 2020: 2021 Redux. This work was inspired by the commentary “In the midst of two realities”, published in Epidemiology on 2021.
Jun 24, 2021 12:00 AM

Towards a clearer understanding of the inverse association between cancer and dementia

I presented this work in the Oral abstract session of Novel questions and innovative methods in aging epidemiology at the Society for Epidemiologic Research Conference, 2021. The work from this presentation is under review for publication.
Jun 23, 2021 12:00 AM
Slides abstract book

Hypothetical blood-pressure-lowering interventions and risk of stroke and dementia

I presented this work in the session of Early identification and prevention of brain disorders at the Society for Epidemiologic Research Conference, 2020. The work from this presentation has been published at the European Journal of Epidemiology, more information here.
Dec 16, 2020 12:00 AM
Slides abstract book Publication
See all talks

Projects

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All Open data and R Other
Workshop on causal inference with competing events

Workshop on causal inference with competing events

Code for the workshop held at the Society of Epidemiologic Research conference, 2022 and 2023

Translation to spanish of the book: Teaching Teach Together

Translation to spanish of the book: Teaching Teach Together

Rol: Translation

Gender disparity in the NEJM

Gender disparity in the NEJM

Proportion of women who published in the NEJM through out time. Work in progress.

Popular Topics

Activism Bolivia Causal inference communities Competing events Covid19 Data Feminism dementia Education English G-Formula Hypertension inequities maternity mortality Netherlands Open data and R phd Stroke target trial emulation

Contact