About

Hello, I'm Eric! Currently, I am a medical student at the Chicago Medical School at the Rosalind Franklin University. Previously, I was a Biostatistician at Stanford Medicine in the Quantitative Sciences Unit where I worked with a variety of physicians on study design, power calculation, and analyses. Before that, I was a senior research data analyst at Johns Hopkins, where I worked with some really cool doctors and epidemiologists on kidney and liver transplant problems in the US.

I'm a pro at survival analysis, Markov modelling, decision processing modelling, regression, and stochastic simulation. I also do study design, power analyses, and grant work (ie: I know what a p-value is and how not to mis-use it). I am a hypothesis-driven data scientist, I care more about what we can learn about our world, than what a machine learns from data. My undergrad was in industrial engineer at the University of Toronto (yes, I am Canadian. Yes, I know combinatorial optimization). But I also have my masters in decision sciences from the London School of Economics, and also a masters in health informatics from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

I code in Stata, R, SAS, and also C for speed. The whitespace of Python drives me crazy, but I do it when I have to.

Check out some examples of my work.

Data Science

COVID-19 Kidney Transplant Web App

What does this COVID-19 pandemic mean for the thousands of people on the kidney transplant waitlist? Should surgeons wait for it to be over? Are these patients at a greater risk going to dialysis every week? I worked with some Hopkins experts to make a simulation. Check out the App.

Lung Cancer Risk Factor R Package

A person's smoking history can inform them about their risk of lung cancer, but what about those of us who have never smoked? can't we get lung cancer too, and how do you figure out our risk? Along w Summer Han, I developed an R package that simulates other lung cancer risk factors using the smoking history generator developed by CISNET. Check it out on my github.

Bias and Efficiency in Matched Study Designs

I developed and tested an algorithm in R that matches cases and controls with varying cluster ratios (instead of a fixed 1:n ratio), for studies where it is difficult to recruit sufficient controls. I presented this work at the Joint Statistical Meeting in Colorado (JSM 2019).

Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection

I was the statistical lead on a multi-center study of SCAD. I advised the primary investigators on study design, appropriate statistical methods, and data collection. I have a junior statistician who helps me with this, which is nice.

Predicting HIV in the Demographic Health Surveys

I used conditional inference trees to see if there were any novel factors that may be predictive of HIV status of individuals in sub-Saharan Africa, using sort-of big data from the Demographic Health Surveys.

Liver Simulated Allocation Model

Allocation of donated organs to people with liver disease is challenging in the US. I worked with mathematicians, data from the Scientific Registry for Transplant Recipients, and used simulation models to study hypothetical allocation systems that give people with liver disease a fairer chance at a life-saving liver transplant, regardless of where they live.

Kidney Paired Donation

The National Kidney Registry arranges domino kidney transplants in the US. We studied the associations between transporting kidneys (and the time they are put on ice) and how well the kidneys and patients do. This required plenty of data cleaning, linking, and survival/logistic regression in Stata.

Detecting Pneumonia with Machine Learning

Can a stethoscope and a smartphone be used to listen to your breathing and warn you about potentially abnormal conditions? Clinicloud.com has the answer to this problem. I worked with them to develop neural-net algorithms for heart-rate and pneumonia detection in R.

Patient-Centered Decision Modelling

I wrote Markov models in C (and PhP) to help inform patient-centered decision problems. In one decision problem, kids with kidney disease have to decide whether they should accept a kidney from a willing donor that they know, or if they should wait to get one from the deceased donor waitlist and “save” the other one for later. Check out the online decision-tools I have made here.

Check out my peer-reviewed papers

Search & Rescue

I have been a Mountain Search and Rescue Volunteer with the Bay Area Mountain Rescue Unit (BAMRU) in California since 2018. In my first year, I logged 350+ operational hours in over a dozen searches in the Sierras and all over the state. It's not easy! Training in my first-year took 500hrs (my training is still ongoing) and I have to work effectively and safely with my team-mates under circumstances of extreme pressure. I was awarded 2018 Rookie of the year in “recognition of exceptional volunteer service and outstanding BAMRU achievements.”

As a mountain SAR volunteer, I was on-call 24-7 to respond to lost hikers and climbers in the most difficult and remote mountain terrain in California. Ocassionally, we get flown in by helicopter and are expected to be self-sufficient for 72hrs; but usually we hike in and out and are supported very generously by the local communities whom we are serving.

Learn more about the Bay Area Mountain Rescue Unit here.

Pubmed

My H-index on Scopus is 17. I can be found as Eric KH Chow on the pubmeds. Or if you want to get in touch, you can contact me or checkout my social media. A selection of works I was involved in:

  1. Church E et al, Pregnancy after direct cerebral bypass for Moyamoya disease. J Neuro Surg; Nov 15, 2019.
  2. Pargaonkar V et al, Accuracy of non-invasive stress testing in women and men with angina in the absence of obstructive coronary artery disease. Intl J of Cardiology 2019; 282:7-15.
  3. Han S et al, Disparities of national lung cancer screening guidelines in the US population. J Natl Cancer Inst 2020; 112(11).
  4. Massie A et al, Identifying scenarios of benefit or harm from kidney transplantation during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A stochastic simulation and machine learning study. AJT 2020,00:1-11.
  5. Pargaonkar V et al, Dose-response relationship between intracoronary acetylcholine and minimal lumen diameter in coronary endothelial function testing of women and men with angina and no obstructive coronary artery disease. Circ Cardiovasc Inerv. April 2020.
  6. Treat E, Chow EKH, Peirpert JD, Waterman A, Segev DL, Veale J. Outcomes of Shipped Kidney Paired Donation with Additional Cold Ischemia Time. AJT 2017.
  7. Chow EKH, Massie AB, Luo X, Wickliffe CE, Gentry SE, Cameron AM, Segev DL. Waitlist Outcomes of liver Transplant Candidates Who Were Reprioritized Under Share 35. AJT 2016.
  8. Massie AB, Leanza J, Fahmy LM, Chow EKH, Desai NM, Luo X, King EA, Bowring MG, Segev DL. A Risk Index for Living Donor Kidney Transplantation. AJT 2016; 16: 2077-2084.
  9. Gentry SE, Chow EKH, Dzebisashvili N, Schnitzler MA, Lentine KL, Wickliffe CE, Shteyn E, Pyke J, Israni A, Kasiske B, Segev DL, Axelrod DA. The Impact of Redistricting Proposals on Health Care Expenditures for Liver Transplant Candidates and Recipients. AJT 2015
  10. Grams ME, Sang Y, Levey AS, Matsushita K, Ballew S, Chang AR, Chow EKH, Kasiske BL, Kovesdy CP, Nadkarni GN, Shaley V, Segev DL, Coresh J, Lentine KL, Garg AX. Kidney Failure Risk Projection for the Living Kidney Donor Candidate. NEJM 2016; 374(5):411-21.
  11. Massie AB, Chow EKH, Wickliffe CE, Luo X, Gentry SE, Mulligan DC, Segev DL. Early Changes in Liver Distribution Following Implementation of Share 35. Am J Transplant 2015; 15: 659-667.
  12. Gentry SE, Chow EKH, Massie AB, Luo X, Zaun D, Snyder JJ, Israni AK, Kasiske B, Segev DL. Liver Sharing and Organ Procurement Organization Performance. Liver Transplantation 2015; 21: 1031-1039.
  13. Orandi BJ, Chow EKH, Hsu A, Gupta N, Van Arendonk KJ, Garonzik-Wang JM et al. Quantifying Renal Allograft Loss Following Early Antibody-Mediated Rejection. Am J of Transplantation 2015; 15: 489-498.
  14. Chow EKH*, Van Arendonk K*, James NT, Orandi BJ, Ellison TA, Smith JM, Colombani PM, Segev DL. Choosing the Order of Deceased Donor and Living Donor Kidney Transplantation in Pediatric Recipients: A Markov Decision Process Model. Transplantation 2015; 99(2).
  15. Hahn-Goldberg S, Chow EKH, Appel E, Ko FTF, Tan P, Gavin MB et al. Discrete Event Simulation of Patient Admissions to a Neurovascular Unit. J of Healthcare Engineering 2014; 5(3).
  16. Gentry SE, Chow EKH, Wickliffe CE, Massie AB, Segev DL. Impact of Broader Sharing on Transport Time for Deceased Donor Livers. Liver Transplantation 2014; 20(10):1237-43.
  17. Massie AB, Luo X, Chow EKH, Alejo JL, Desai NM, Segev DL. Survival Benefit of Primary Deceased Donor Transplantation With High-KDPI Kidneys. Am J Transplant 2014; 14: 2310-2316.
  18. The CST/CNTRP increased risk donor working group. Guidance on the Use of Increased Infectious Risk Donors for Organ Transplantation. Transplantation 2014; 98(4):365-369.
  19. Chow EKH, Wong HJ, Hahn-Goldberg S, Chan C, Morra D. Inpatient and Emergent Resource Use of Patients on Dialysis at an Academic Medical Center. Nephron Clin Practice 2014; 126:124-127.
  20. Gentry SE, Massie AB, Cheek SW, Lentine KL, Chow EKH, Wickliffe CE, Dzebashvill N, Salvalaggio PR, Schnitzler MA, Axelrod DA, Segev DL. Addressing geographic disparities in liver transplantation through redistricting; Am J Transplant 2013; 13(8):2052-8.
  21. Grams ME, Chow EKH, Segev DL, Coresh J. Lifetime Incidence of CKD Stages 3-5 in the United States. Am J Kidney Disease 2013; 62(2):245-52.
  22. Chow EKH, Massie A, Muzaale A, Singer A., Kucirka L, Montgomery RA, Lehmann HP, Segev DL. Identifying Appropriate Recipients for CDC Infectious Risk Donor Kidneys. Am J Transplant 2013; 13(5): 1227-34.
  23. Chow EKH, Zuberi M, Seto R, Hota S, Fish EN, Morra D. Using real-time alerts for clinical trials: Identifying potential study subjects. Applied Clinical Informatics 2011; 2(4): 472-480.

Art

Medical Illustrations

I could always draw very well. I had an elementary school art teacher who would always say that I had “the eye” in a very freaky ominous way. I'm not sure where this eye is, but I think I just have very excellent fine motor skills. I started drawing like this when I was about 11 years old. At the time, my favorite subject were dinosaurs.

Here's another example. For those familiar with Gray's Anatomy, you may notice that my inspiration for these sketches come from there. Except this cross section of a heart. I forget where I saw this from.

Here is a study I did of the anatomy of the shoulder. I did it because I had a shoulder injury from climbing, and I learned that the shoulder is hella complicated.

Alright, back to our regular program of science!

Check out my peer-reviewed papers