Steven Hawken
Senior Scientist, Methodological and Implementation Research
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Associate Professor, School of Epidemiology and Public Health
University of Ottawa
Scientific Lead, Big Data Analytics
Ottawa Methods Centre
Adjunct Scientist
Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences
Affiliate Investigator
Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute
Research Interests
Dr. Steven Hawken’s main research interests include:
- applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning in answering important health-related questions;
- using newborn screening metabolomic data, birth registry and health administrative data to predict perinatal and pediatric health outcomes; and
- linking large health administrative, clinical, and biological databases to answer population health questions including pediatric vaccine safety and efficacy, and risk prediction for chronic disease outcomes.
Brief Biography
Dr. Hawken earned his Master’s of Applied Statistics at the University of Guelph in 2001, and worked in biostatistical roles for several years thereafter. He served as the Biostatistician for the landmark INTERHEART study led by Dr. Salim Yusuf at the Population Health Research Institute at McMaster University, which led to several high-impact publications in The Lancet and other top medical journals. Later, he served as the founding Lead Data Analyst for ICES uOttawa, the Ottawa satellite unit of ICES where he had primary responsibility of overseeing a team of 10 highly skilled statistical analysts from 2010 to 2015. During this time, he also co-developed a successful research program in collaboration with Dr. Kumanan Wilson focused on pediatric vaccine safety and newborn screening metabolomics employing large health administrative databases linked with clinical and laboratory databases. In 2014, he earned his PhD in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of Ottawa. In the years that followed, he became the lead Biostatistician in a successful research program focused on the development of a global gestational age prediction model, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (total funding over $2M USD).
In recent years, Dr. Hawken has grown his interdisciplinary and diverse research program focused on applications of biostatistics and artificial intelligence to maternal, newborn, and pediatric health. He has co-authored over 140 peer reviewed manuscripts and holds grant funding support totalling over $475,000 as nominated principal applicant and $2.9M as co-principal applicant. As Scientific Lead for Big Data Analytics within the Ottawa Methods Centre, he provides methodological and statistical expertise to researchers across multiple disciplines at The Ottawa Hospital and the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. As a Senior Adjunct Scientist at ICES, he lends his extensive expertise to researchers interested in pursuing health administrative data research. He is currently working on a variety of projects in the areas of newborn screening metabolomics, maternal-newborn and pediatric epidemiology, and vaccine safety.
Selected Publications
Diseases, conditions and populations of interest
Research and clinical approaches
