Affiliations

  • Professor, Biostatistics Program, Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutch
  • Member, Hutchinson Institute for Cancer Outcomes Research (HICOR), Fred Hutch
  • Member, Translational Data Science Integrated Research Center (TDS IRC), Fred Hutch

Biography

Dr. Carolyn Rutter’s research interests include microsimulation modeling and model calibration, evaluation of diagnostic and screening tests, and meta-analysis and systematic reviews, with a focus on Bayesian approaches. She is interested in understanding and addressing health care inequities and assessing health care quality and provider performance. Dr. Rutter is a principal investigator for a Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network (CISNET) team focused on colorectal cancer and led the development of the CRC-SPIN microsimulation model. Her CISNET work focuses on reducing the population burden of colorectal cancer by comparing the effectiveness of policies for CRC control. She is a fellow of the American Statistical Association and has published more than 150 articles in scientific journals. Dr. Rutter served as an affiliate member of Fred Hutch from 2012-2014. Previous to rejoining Fred Hutch, she worked as an investigator with Group Health Research Institute (now Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute), the UW Biostatistics & Health Services departments and RAND Corporation.

Education

  • University of California, Los Angeles, 1991, PhD (Biostatistics)
  • University of California, Los Angeles, 1988, MS (Biostatistics)
  • University of California, Los Angeles, 1986, BS (Applied Mathematics)

Research Interests

  • Microsimulation modeling
  • Developing and applying Bayesian models
  • Evaluation of diagnostic and screening tests
  • Meta-analysis and systematic reviews
  • Understanding and addressing health care inequities
  • Assessing health care quality and provider performance

Clinical Expertise

Dr. Rutter is a principal investigator (PI) for a Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network (CISNET) team and led the development of the CRC-SPIN microsimulation model for colorectal cancer. She developed a likelihood-free method for model calibration, implemented using the R package “imabc”. This method is especially useful for complex models that are calibrated to multiple targets.