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Heather Allore, PhD

Professor of Medicine (Geriatrics) and of Biostatistics
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Additional Titles

Leader, Data Management and Statistics Core, Yale Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, Internal Medicine

Associate Director of Gerontologic Biostatistical Methods, Internal Medicine: Geriatrics

Senior Biostatistician and Epidemiologist, Internal Medicine: Rheumatology

Co-Director of Biostatistical Core, Internal Medicine: Geriatrics

About

Titles

Professor of Medicine (Geriatrics) and of Biostatistics

Leader, Data Management and Statistics Core, Yale Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, Internal Medicine; Associate Director of Gerontologic Biostatistical Methods, Internal Medicine: Geriatrics; Senior Biostatistician and Epidemiologist, Internal Medicine: Rheumatology; Co-Director of Biostatistical Core, Internal Medicine: Geriatrics

Biography

The focus of my research collaborations and methodological development work as previous Director of Biostatistics at the Yale Program on Aging for 12 years and current Leader of the Yale Alzheimer's Disease Research Center's Data Management and Statistics Core. I founded the field of Gerontological Biostatistics. I lead the Design and Statistics Core of Imbedded Pragmatic Alzheimer’s Disease and AD-Related Dementias Clinical Trials Collaboratory. I am Co-director of the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Core of the Yale Transdisciplinary Collaborative Center for Precision Medicine focused on Health Disparities, especially adults with multiple chronic conditions. I co-authored a paper on health disparities in the Decadal Survey of Behavioral and Social Science Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Dementias. My innovated analytic methods include joint trajectories of cognition, function and mortality. Innovative designs and biostatistical methods are required to rigorously address the myriad of unanswered scientific questions related to older adults and persons with dementia, including risk prediction.

With over 285 peer-reviewed articles and continuous NIH funding since 2000, my research has focused on issues related to the design of clinical trials for and studies of older adults. These and other methodologic advances resulted in me being an invited speaker at an NIH/NIA conference on Longitudinal Methods and another on Clinical Trial Design. In 2017 and 2020, I co-chaired the Study Design and Metrics component of the NIH meeting on the 21st Century Cures Act: Inclusion Across the Lifespan I and II. I previously chaired the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center's Data Cores Steering Committee, member of the Executive Committee, and Co-Lead of the Data and Measures Committee of the NIA-funded AGING Initiative, which is a collaboration of Older Americans Independence Centers and the Healthcare Systems Research Network. I have a wealth of experience conducting epidemiologic studies and am a recognized authority on longitudinal statistical methods, including latent class trajectory models, and joint models. A defining hallmark of my biostatistical approach is that instead of developing analytic methods in the absence of a clinical question or adapting the study question to available analytical techniques, I adapt new statistical methods that suitably model the specific study question.

Appointments

Education & Training

Postdoctoral Fellow
Cornell University (1999)
PhD
Cornell University (1996)
MSc
Cornell University (1993)
BS (Hon)
State University of New York, College of Technology, Computer Science (1989)

Research

Overview

Dr. Allore's current research includes analytic methods for Alzheimer's and related dementias, polypharmacy, functional and mobility disability in the older adults, differences in immune system function of between young and older persons, and multiple comorbid conditions.

She is also developing a subdiscipline of biostatistics within the American Statistical Association that focuses on training and methodological development in geriatrics called “gerontologic biostatistics.” This discipline trains biostatisticians for conducting collaborative clinical research with geriatricians and gerontologists in elderly populations and provide the basis for the development new statistical methodology.

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)

Aging; Biostatistics; Epidemiologic Methods; Frail Elderly; Geriatrics; Mathematical Concepts; Statistics as Topic

Research at a Glance

Yale Co-Authors

Frequent collaborators of Heather Allore's published research.

Publications

2024

Academic Achievements & Community Involvement

  • activity

    VA Cooperative Studies Program Coordinating Center

  • activity

    Human Nutrition and Obesity Section USDA-NRICGP

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    CDC

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    NIH/NIA

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    NIH/NIA

Get In Touch

Contacts

Administrative Support

Locations

  • Program on Aging

    Academic Office

    300 George Street, Ste 775

    New Haven, CT 06511