{"id":7090,"date":"2022-02-17T19:01:54","date_gmt":"2022-02-17T19:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nau.edu\/sherc\/?p=7090"},"modified":"2022-04-11T21:44:29","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T21:44:29","slug":"staff-spotlight-indrakshi-roy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/sherc\/staff-spotlight-indrakshi-roy\/","title":{"rendered":"Staff spotlight: Indrakshi Roy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Indrakshi Roy, PhD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Why is the field of biostatistics important to health equity? Indrakshi Roy<\/strong>, PhD, biostatistician for the Center for Community Health and Engaged Research<\/a> (CHER) and the Southwest Health Equity Collaborative<\/a> (SHERC), believes that with the advancement of various technologies, analysis of data is becoming the cornerstone for policy decisions and for addressing health disparities or achieving equity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the light of this pandemic, we have seen that data are essential for identifying where disparities exist, directing efforts and resources to address disparities as they are identified, measuring progress toward achieving greater equity, and establishing accountability for achieving progress,\u201d Roy said. \u201cWithout adequate data, inequities remain unseen and unaddressed. The potential impact of big data in health care innovation cannot be ignored.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roy said that, although big data analytics have great potential to target inequities, reduce disparities, and inform policy decisions, it is important to properly understand the biases that can occur from using big data methods.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is also important to understand how to properly work with and analyze big data,\u201d Roy said of the nuances of interpreting data accurately.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Roy works with the Technical Assistance Group<\/a> a service center in CHER, to help faculty and staff conduct high-quality research at NAU, assisting faculty and researchers in statistical methods and analysis for their research projects.<\/p>\n

She also assists with grant applications together, reviewing analytical plans with investigators, suggesting appropriate statistical methods and helping with power analysis. She also conducts workshops at NAU related to quantitative methods, secondary data, and statistical software.<\/p>\n

\u201cI use my expertise to assist others who are interested in using quantitative statistical methods in their studies,\u201d Roy said.<\/p>\n

Through her own research, Roy works with large secondary datasets to answer questions related to health services, health policy and gerontology. So far, she has collaborated on five publications while at the center: \u201cMedicare Claim\u2013Based National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale to Predict 30-Day Mortality and Hospital Readmission<\/a>\u201d; \u201cQuality of Care and Outcomes Among a Diverse Group of Long-Term Care Residents With Alzheimer\u2019s Disease and Related Dementias<\/a>\u201d; \u201cShifting US Patterns of COVID-19 Mortality by Race and Ethnicity From June-December 2020<\/a>\u201d; \u201cRacial Differences in Post-Acute Transition After Hip Fracture in Medicare Patients With ADRD<\/a>\u201d; and \u201cRacial Differences in Post-Acute Utilization After Hip Fracture in Medicare Beneficiaries With ADRD<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing up as a scientist<\/h2>\n

Roy said she was always inclined toward the sciences as a youth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had an aptitude for math and science, and everyone assumed I would go for medical school or engineering, as is common in countries like India,\u201d Roy said. \u201cBut I decided I wanted to try something new in college. So, I went for economics.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said that she wasn\u2019t particularly interested in economics at first, and she graduated college feeling uninspired.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen my professor introduced me to one of his ex-students who at the time was an assistant professor of economics in a very reputable Canadian university,\u201d Roy said. \u201cThis person changed my outlook toward the subject. I started taking up more personal research projects and decided to apply for graduate school in the US.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said that she realized that economics could be applied to almost every aspect of life like no other subject, which fascinated her.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring graduate school in the US, I started understanding concepts of economics clearly, and it was a subject that kept me constantly curious,\u201d Roy said.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, she earned her doctorate in economics from Wayne State University. She focused her dissertation on \u201cThe Changing Status of Employer-Sponsored Fringe Benefits in the U.S. for Adults Nearing Retirement<\/a>,\u201d which began her focus toward health equity.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time, my advisor and mentor and I started discussing the retirement crisis,\u201d Roy said. \u201cWe felt it was a very important topic and wanted to contribute to the literature. Whenever I discussed my dissertation with people I encountered, like Uber drivers, everyone related to it and always had personal anecdotes to share.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roy arrived in Flagstaff two years ago, and she said that her experiences at CHER and SHERC have been influential.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get to work alongside exceptional leaders and researchers and it is an inspiration every day. It is a very positive and encouraging environment,\u201d Roy said.<\/p>\n

For more information on how to submit a TAG request, watch “How to submit a TAG request<\/a>.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why is the field of biostatistics important to health equity? Indrakshi Roy, PhD, biostatistician for the Center for Community Health and Engaged Research (CHER) and the Southwest Health Equity Collaborative (SHERC), believes that with the advancement of various technologies, analysis of data is becoming the cornerstone for policy decisions and for addressing health disparities or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":286,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/sherc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7090"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/sherc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/sherc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/sherc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/286"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/sherc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7090"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/sherc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7091,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/sherc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7090\/revisions\/7091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/sherc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/sherc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/sherc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}