Dr. Zheng Receives Funding as Part of an Interdisciplinary Team Studying Heart Failure

Dr. Shimin Zheng, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology of the College of Public Health, will participate in a research project led by Dr. Timir Paul in the Quillen College of Medicine’s Department of Internal Medicine. 

The research team will analyze the National (Nationwide) Inpatient Sample (NIS), the largest all-payer inpatient care database in the United States.  The NIS contains data on more than seven million hospital stays. Its large sample size is ideal for developing national and regional estimates and enabling analysis of rare conditions, uncommon treatments, and special populations.  This project aims to analyze trends of cardiovascular diseases and procedure, utilization, predictors, complications, length of hospital stays and cost analysis.  Dr. Zheng will fulfill the important role of biostatistician for the project.

The project’s future plan will include a grant proposal to American Heart Association to conduct a prospective cohort study on how to improve the healthy lifestyles, motivate towards positive behavioral changes and medication adherence with emphasize in primary prevention.