Summer Han

Associate Professor (research) of Neurosurgery, of medicine (Biomedical Informatics) and, by courtesy, of Epidemiology and Population Health

My research areas include statistical genetics, risk prediction modeling, cancer screening, and health policy modeling. I have been developing various statistical methods to analyze large-scale genetic data to understand the interplay between genes and the environment for various complex disease including cancer and neurological diseases. My recent methodological papers were published in high-profile statistical journals including the Journal of the American Statistical Association and Biometrics. In addition to statistical genetics, I have worked on several cancer screening and health policy modeling projects, by developing stochastic simulation models utilizing/merging various data sources including cancer registry data, epidemiologic case-control or cohort data, and nationally representative data such as NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey). I have a wide range of methodological projects that BMI students may be interested in learning and working on. Currently, I am advising several medical students and Neurosurgery residents in conducting research, which includes: SEER-Medicare data-based surgery outcome analysis, mutation profiling for lung cancer using Stanford EMR database, and meta-analysis of
substance use disorders.