I am an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an economist at the Center for Healthcare Delivery Science at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), where I lead the data analytics team and specialize in quasi-experimental designs and econometric methods for causal inference. I received a PhD in economics in 2020 and a BA in economics and mathematics in 2015.
While I work on a variety of healthcare delivery research projects, my primary research interests are improving access to outpatient care and reducing barriers to safe transitions between inpatient and outpatient settings, especially for behavioral health and perinatal patients. I am particularly interested in the initiation of substance use disorder treatment during the perinatal period. My research has been featured in National Geographic, NPR, Forbes, Freakonomics Radio, and other outlets.
I am also a Volunteer Case Reviewer for the Department of Children & Families (DCF) Foster Care Review Unit, which helps plan for the future of children placed in foster care and group homes in Massachusetts and connects them with services in our community.
Curriculum Vitae
Contact Information
Email: aodonogh@bidmc.harvard.edu
Twitter: @shley_odonoghue
FUNDING
2020–2022: Quantifying secondary health impacts of COVID-19
Google.org
Co-investigator (PI: Stevens)
The goal of this project is to quantify the impact of COVID-19 on non-COVID-associated healthcare, including substance use disorder treatment. A fundamental hypothesis is that preventive care and routine care will be delayed and deferred, leading to subsequent increased healthcare utilization.
2018–2021: A new approach to patient safety: identifying risky clinical states to reduce preventable harms for hospitalized patients
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
Co-investigator (PI: Stevens)
Our proposal developed and refined a tool to quantify the level of risk of preventable patient harms in intensive care units, prospectively validated this tool, and spread this tool to a new clinical environment.
PUBLICATIONS
PEER-REVIEWED
underline denotes co-first author
O'Donoghue A, White M, Weiss A, Stevens J, Anderson T. "Trends in Medicare Part B spending on discarded drugs, 2017-2020," JAMA Internal Medicine. 2022.
Anderson T, O’Donoghue A, Mechanic O, Dechen T, Stevens J. “Administration of anti-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies administration following Food and Drug Administration deauthorization,” JAMA Network Open. 2022.
Featured in: USA Today, US News & World Report, University of Minnesota CIDRAP, Drugs.com, Yahoo! News, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Buffalo News, Arizona Daily Star, UPI, MPR, The Bismarck Tribune, Hola Doctor, Rapid City Journal, Missoulian, The Times of Northwest Indiana
Riviello E, Dechen T, O’Donoghue A, Cocchi M, Hayes M, Molina R, Moraco N, Mosenthal A, Rosenblatt M, Talmor N, Walsh D, Sontag D, Stevens J. “Assessment of a crisis standards of care scoring system for resource prioritization and estimated excess mortality by race, ethnicity, and socially vulnerable area during a regional surge in COVID-19,” JAMA Network Open. 2022.
Featured in: University of Minnesota CIDRAP
Haber N, Wieten S, Rohrer J, Arah O, Tennant P, Stuart E, Murray E, Pilleron S, Lam S, Riederer E, Howcutt S, Simmons A, Leyrat C, Schoenegger P, Booman A, Dufour M, O'Donoghue A, Baglini R, Do S, Takashima M, Evans T, Rodriguez-Molina D, Alsalti T, Dunleavy D, Meyerowitz-Katz G, Antonietti A, Calvache J, Kelson M, Salvia M, Parra C, Khalatbari-Soltani S, McLinden T, Chatton A, Seiler J, Steriu A, Alshihayb T, Twardowski S, Dabravolskaj J, Au E, Hoopsick R, Suresh S, Judd N, Peña S, Axfors C, Khan P, Aguirre A, Odo N, Schmid I, Fox M. "Causal and associational language in observational health research: a systematic evaluation," Accepted at the American Journal of Epidemiology, In Press.
O'Donoghue A. "Association of university student gatherings with community COVID-19 infections before and after the NCAA March Madness Tournament," JAMA Network Open. 2021.
Featured in: National Geographic, Freakonomics Radio, Boston's NPR Station (WBUR), The Dallas Morning News, US News & World Report, Inside Higher Ed, University of Minnesota CIDRAP, UPI
Anderson T, O'Donoghue A, Dechen T, Mechanic O, Stevens J. "Uptake of outpatient monoclonal antibody treatments for COVID-19 in the United States: a cross-sectional analysis," Journal of General Internal Medicine. 2021.
Featured in: Vox
Horng S, O'Donoghue A, Dechen T, Rabesa M, Shammout A, Markson L, Jegadeesan V, Tandon M, Stevens J. "Secondary use of employee COVID-19 symptom reporting as syndromic surveillance as an early warning signal of future hospitalizations," JAMA Network Open. 2021.
Featured in: ContagionLive
Tsaneva M, O'Donoghue A. "The effect of a large scale workfare program on child marriage in India," Oxford Development Studies. 2021.
Anderson T, O'Donoghue A, Dechen T, Herzig S, Stevens J. "Trends in telehealth and in-person transitional care management visits during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2021.
O'Donoghue A, Biswas N, Dechen T, Anderson T, Talmor N, Punnamaraju A, Stevens J. "Trends in filled naloxone prescriptions before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States," JAMA Health Forum, 2021.
Ranked in the top 3 research articles in JAMA Health Forum - The Year in Review, 2021 by Altmetric Score
Featured in: NPR, Forbes, US News & World Report, Kaiser Health News, KFF Policy Watch, The National Law Review, University of Minnesota CIDRAP, Pain Medicine News, Becker's Hospital Review, PatientEngagementHIT, The Tyee, Drug Topics, Clinical Pain Advisor
Stevens J, Mechanic O, Markson L, O'Donoghue A, Kimball A. "Telehealth use by age and race at a single academic medical center during COVID-19," Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2021.
O’Donoghue A, Dechen T, Pavlova W, Boals M, Moussa G, Madan M, Thakkar A, DeFalco F, Stevens J. “Reopening businesses and risk of covid-19 transmission," npj Digital Medicine 2021.
Awards: Winner of the MIT COVID-19 Challenge Datathon
Featured in: MIT Quest for Intelligence, Siemens Podcast, Fox Business , VTDigger
Mitra A, Griesdale D, Haljan G, O'Donoghue A, Stevens J. "How the high acuity unit changes mortality in the intensive care unit: a retrospective before-and-after study," Canadian Journal of Anesthesia. 2020.
Horng S, Joseph J, Calder S, Stevens J, O’Donoghue A, Safran C, Nathanson L, Leventhal E. “Assessment of Unintentional Duplicate Orders by Emergency Department Clinicians Before and After Implementation of Visual Aid in the Electronic Health Record Ordering System,” JAMA Network Open. 2019.
NON-PEER-REVIEWED
Chawla K, Oriol N, O'Donoghue A. "Addressing racial health inequities includes addressing the minimum wage," The Hill. April 18, 2021.
O'Donoghue A, Dechen T. "Reopening businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic: how can we improve measures of human interaction?" npj Digital Medicine Community: Behind the Paper. March 16, 2021.
Stevens J, O’Donoghue A, Horng S, Tandon M, Tabb K. “Healthcare’s earthquake: Lessons from complex adaptive systems to develop COVID-19-responsive measures and models,” NEJM Catalyst. October 23, 2020.
Featured in: Bloomberg Surveillance (beginning at timestamp 2:11:32)
Stevens J, Horng S, O’Donoghue A, Moravick S, Weiss A. “How one Boston hospital built a covid-19 forecasting system,” Harvard Business Review, June 29, 2020.
Featured in: Massachusetts Health Data Consortium Webinar, NBC News, AI in Healthcare
PRE-PRINTS
O'Donoghue A, Reichheld A, Anderson T, Zera C, Dechen T, Stevens J. "Decline in prenatal buprenorphine/naloxone fills during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States," medRxiv, 2021.
SELECTED MEDIA
OPIOID USE DISORDER
Forbes, "Supreme Court Decision On EPA Could Have Implications For Other Regulatory Agencies, Like FDA"
NPR, "To save lives, overdose antidote should be sold over-the-counter, advocates argue"
Kaiser Health News, "With overdose deaths surging, advocates on the ground push for over-the-counter naloxone"
KFF Policy Watch, "Substance use issues are worsening alongside access to care"
US News & World Report, "During pandemic, fewer using drug that fights opioid overdose"
University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), "Supply of opioid antidote naloxone strong during COVID-19."
Pain Medicine News, "Pandemic tamps down naloxone prescriptions"
Becker's Hospital Review, "Naloxone prescriptions dip during the pandemic"
COVID-19
National Geographic, "How to have a COVID-safe Thanksgiving gathering"
Freakonomics Radio, "Is it okay to have a party yet?"
Boston's NPR Station (WBUR), "Study links March Madness to increased coronavirus spread"
The Dallas Morning News, "Study: March Madness played a role in COVID-19 transmission upticks"
Inside Higher Ed, "March Madness Triggered Spike in COVID-19 Infections"
University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), "Study links March Madness parties to more county COVID cases"
US News & World Report, "COVID cases rose in university towns hosting NCAA 'March Madness'"
Vox, "Are we turning the corner on Covid-19 treatments?"
MIT Quest for Intelligence, "What is the covid-19 data tsunami telling policymakers?"
The Future Car: A Siemens Podcast, "Modeling, economists and predicting the new normal"
VTDigger, "Study: High-risk behavior dropped more in Vermont than in nearby states"
PolitiFact, "The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally's impact on the coronavirus, explained"
Inverse, “What the Sturgis superspreader report actually says about COVID-19"
Becker's Hospital Review, "The predictive analytics tools hospitals are using to forecast COVID-19 case surges"
AI in Healthcare, “4 takeaways from a Harvard hospital’s homegrown COVID forecasting"
Becker’s Hospital Review, “How Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center predicted COVID-19 surges 5 days before national models"