Brian S. Diggs, Phd Email & Phone Number

Vancouver, Washington, United States

Program Analyst in the Center for Strategic Analytics and Reporting (CSAR) in the Analytics & Performance Integration (API) group of the Office of Quality & Patient Safety (QPS) at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Projects include a redesign of the primary comparisons of hospitals between each other and against community benchmarks.

Portland, Oregon Area

Program Analyst in the Clinical Business Intelligence (CBI) Section of the Northwest Innovation Center (NWIC) at the VA Portland Health Care System (VAPORHCS) for a project funded by an Innovation Grant to improve monitoring of patients on non-formulary medications. Project consists of improved electronic formulary exception requests, improved adjudication by pharmacists, and a tracking registry for use by pharmacy services.Designed, developed, and deployed a registry of patients for tracking compliance with required monitoring and for providing a basis for intervention. Registry was developed in SQL Server Reporting Services and was based on the VA's Regional Data Warehouse. Flexibility was built into the design to allow for multiple cohorts of patients on different drugs, each having different monitoring criteria and monitoring intervals. Developed the assessment criteria and protocols for the project including both pre and post intervention measurements for all three arms of the project.

Vancouver, Washington

Academic quarters: Spring 2008, Fall 2008, Winter 2009, Fall 2009, Winter 2010, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Winter 2011, Winter 2015, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Winter 2016, Spring 2016, Winter 2017Staff a physics laboratory session which caters to students in a one quarter introductory course for non-science majors, a one quarter introductory course for an applied science degree, and both a non-calculus based and calculus based three quarter sequence of introductory physics. Specific classes in lab vary by quarter. Duties included checking students' pre-lab assignments, answering questions as they arose in lab, maintaining sufficient supplies to complete labs, and troubleshoot equipment as needed.

Portland, Oregon Area

At the request of the Editor in Chief or another editor, reviewed submissions and resubmissions to the World Journal of Surgery for proper use of statistical techniques, consistency of numerical results and conclusions, appropriate tabular and graphical presentation of results, and, in the case of resubmissions, authors' responses to previous comments.

Portland, Oregon Area

Biostatistican for the Department of Surgery assisting residents and attending surgeons with designing methodologically sound research studies, analyzing collected data, and presenting the findings in an understandable, audience appropriate manner. During this time, I was a co-author on nearly one hundred peer-reviewed academic publications.Research design work included validating feasibility through determination of appropriate populations to derive sample size analysis from as well as reviewing protocols for completeness and robustness. Data analysis ranged from small clinical samples, direct data from electronic medical records (EPIC), multi-year registry data, multi-site collaborations, and administratively collected data sets aggregated at the state and national level. Statistical techniques included simple descriptive statistic, bivariate comparisons of predictors, confounders, and outcomes, and multivariable regression models, including stratified and mixed effects models. Presentation of results included conforming to the principles of reproducible research so that all data cleaning steps and analyses performed were recorded. Statistical techniques were presented in a manner understandable by an academic medical audience. Abstracts for presentation and manuscripts for publication were reviewed to ensure that data were reported correctly, analyses were described properly, and tabular and graphics representations were used appropriately.As a resource for the department, I trained surgical residents during their dedicated research year in study design, clinical research data collection, electronic data storage, statistical analysis of data, reproducible research, and data presentation. This training included both didactic sessions and one-on-one training while working through their research projects.

Greater Pittsburgh Area

Developed and led various consulting projects and incubation projects. Mentored interns and new hires. Selected to be a primary interviewer. Revised interviewing guidelines to make a consistent and useful process. Revised technical group process guidelines. A technical liaison for company-wide business process review, improvement, and codification. Co-developed and co-lead internal professional development seminars in HTML coding.USInterns.com: Project Lead and Technical Advisor: Designed a community oriented web site geared toward matching internship seekers and providers. Implemented the graphical design with dynamically generated content using ASP and Microsoft SQL Server 7 database back end. Advised company heads on technical matters, extension of site functionality, integration with outside technologies and service providers, and implementation of subsequent graphical redesigns. Site was named a Yahoo! Daily Pick within one week of launch.(Name Withheld): Project Lead: Worked with client to create an internet based service to replace a labor and time intensive practice. Managed and integrated information from 15 people representing the client, business strategy group, graphic design group, and technology group. Service implemented using Java Server Pages (JSP) and Oracle.Intelytics: Technical Lead: Researched and classified both theoretical and existing privacy threats and risks present in a web environment. Implemented a deployable product from a rapid prototype. Oversaw an expansion of the flagship product including a change of deployment strategy from an Application Service Provider model to a deployed or managed solution model. Designed training materials for and trained outside consultants on the value and use of the full line of products. Products were accepted by school systems for student protection and consulting firms as part of compliance and security auditing practices.

Doctor Of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Theoretical Physics

Dissertation title: "Bayesian Analysis of Thermodynamic Series Expansions" under adviser Robert H. Swendsen

Master Of Science (Ms), Physics

Bachelor Of Science (Bs), Physics, With Computer Option

Graduated with honors in Computer Science

High School Diploma