Scientific Leadership
Christopher G. Rowan, PhD
Founder & Pharmacoepidemiologist
Christopher G. Rowan PhD (Chris) is the Founder and Principal Investigator of COHRDATA, INC and Veritas Research Foundation (501(c)(3)). He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at Rutgers University Center for Pharmacoepidemiology and Treatment Sciences Center (PETS) and pharmacoepidemiologist, biostatistician, and drug safety researcher by training. He has extensive experience using comparative methods to estimate causal relationships between medication exposure and adverse drug events (ADEs). His research vision is to safeguard public health using innovative strategies to detect, quantify, and confirm drug related harm.
Chris is experienced in designing and executing retrospective, observational drug safety studies using electronic health record (EHR) and health insurance claims databases – in a variety of disease and therapeutic areas. His recent publications include comparative safety/effectiveness research, predictive modeling studies, and methodologic investigations. His research proficiencies include advanced study design and analytic approaches to address confounding and selection bias, interpretation of research findings, and dissemination through peer reviewed publications (abstracts and manuscripts). Chris has a strong publication track record and several ongoing collaborations with industry partners, academic researchers, and non-profit organizations.
Chris received his Doctor of Philosophy in Epidemiology with a minor in Biostatistics (specialty in pharmacoepidemiology) from the University of Pennsylvania. He received the 2010 Saul Winegrad award for outstanding dissertation. Chris also conducted a pre-doctoral fellowship at the FDA in the Division of Drug Risk Evaluation. He is an active member of the International Society of Pharmacoepidemiology (ISPE) and serves as a regular reviewer for Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety (PDS) and other prominent medical journals.
Timothy Beukelman, MD, MSCE
Research Partner & Senior Scientist
Tim is a pediatric rheumatologist clinician and epidemiologist. He received his MD from Washington University in 2001, and his master’s degree in clinical epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2008. He has authored or co-authored greater than 60 published peer-reviewed manuscripts of original research and has led numerous high-impact studies of drug utilization, effectiveness, and safety using large administrative claims databases and observational registry data. He has contributed to several systematic literature reviews at various levels of involvement, including his leadership of the development and publication of the 2011 American College of Rheumatology recommendations for the treatment of juvenile arthritis.
Gillian Caughey, PhD
Research Partner & Senior Scientist
Gillian is the Director of Research in Clinical Pharmacology, Royal Adelaide Hospital and is Senior Pharmacoepidemiologist, at the University of South Australia. Her research focuses on the utilization, safety and efficacy of medicines, especially in older patients with multimorbidity, using a range of data including electronic health records and administrative claims data. This research aims to develop the evidence base for the therapeutic management of patients with multimorbidity, understand the complex interactions between common combinations of treatments for chronic conditions and develop holistic models of care to improve health outcomes. She is also a Chief Investigator on an Australian Centre of Research Excellence in post-market surveillance of medicines and medical devices, Principal Chief Investigator on the development and implementation of evidence-based clinical indicators of medication-related potentially preventable hospitalizations. Her research skills include the conduct of systematic literature reviews, the design and analyses of pharmacoepidemiologic studies and implementation of evidence into practice and policy, with her research extensively published and cited.
John Acquavella, PhD
Research Partner & Senior Adviser
John is professor of Clinical Epidemiology at Aarhus University, Denmark and a consultant in epidemiology with more than 35 years of research and leadership positions in government, academia, and industry. He completed his doctoral work in epidemiology at the Roswell Park Memorial Institute, State University of New York at Buffalo. The Society for Epidemiologic Research awarded John the Lilienfeld student prize in 1989 for a paper based on his doctoral dissertation. He has worked as an epidemiologist for the US Environmental Protection Agency (1978-¬81) and as an epidemiologist and department head for the University of California (1981-1983), Exxon-Mobil Corporation (1983‐1989), Monsanto/Pharmacia (1989-¬2004), and Amgen (2004--2014). John joined Amgen in late 2004 to build their Global Epidemiology group and retired from Amgen in late 2014 as Executive Director and oncology therapeutic area head. He is a former President of the American College of Epidemiology (2006¬‐2007) and the author/co--author of numerous peer¬-reviewed publications and book chapters in pharmacoepidemiology, bioethics, and occupational/ environmental epidemiology. He holds or has held committee leadership positions in the American College of Epidemiology (Admissions, Nominations, & Publication), International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology (Industry Council co-¬Chair) and the Society for Epidemiologic Research (Awards). John has been an associate editor for the journal Environmental Health Perspectives and is currently an associate editor for Annals of Epidemiology.