Peter Austin

Senior scientist
peter.austin@ices.on.ca
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Phone: 416-480-6131
Fax: 416-480-6048

Research Assistant:

Tilley Creary
Email: tilley.creary@sunnybrook.ca

The focus of Dr. Austin’s research is on statistical methods for health services and clinical epidemiology research. There are three themes to his program of research:

  • Propensity-score methods for estimating the effects of treatments, interventions, and exposures using observational data
  • Survival analysis in the presence of competing risks
  • Statistical methods for predicting outcomes for patients receiving medical or surgical care.

Education

  • B.Sc., 1990, Mathematics, McGill University, Canada
  • M.Sc., 1992, Mathematics, University of Toronto, Canada
  • PhD, 1997, Mathematics, University of Toronto, Canada
  • M.Sc., 1997, Statistics, University of Toronto, Canada

Appointments and Affiliations

  • Senior scientist, Evaluative Clinical Sciences, Schulich Heart Research Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute
  • Full professor, Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto
  • Senior scientist, Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences

Research Foci

  • Clinical epidemiology methodology
  • Health services research
  • Statistical methods for large administrative health care databases
  • Statistics

Publications

Affiliated Labs & Programs

Selected Publications

  1. Austin PC. Using ensemble-based methods for directly estimating causal effects: An investigation of tree-based G-computation. Multivariate Behav Res. 2012 Feb;47:115–135. doi: 10.1080/00273171.2012-640600.

  2. Austin PC. An introduction to propensity-score methods for reducing the effects of confounding in observational studies. Multivariate Behav Res. 2011 May;46:399–424. doi: 10.1080/00273171.2011.56876.

  3. Austin PC. A comparison of 12 algorithms for matching on the propensity score. Stat Med. 2014 Mar 15;33(6):1057–1069. doi: 10.1002/sim.6004.

  4. Austin PC. Optimal caliper widths for propensity-score matching when estimating differences in means and differences in proportions in observational studies. Pharm Stat. 2011 March;10:150–161. doi: 10.1002/pst.433.

  5. Austin PC. A critical appraisal of propensity score matching in the medical literature from 1996 to 2003. Stat Med 2008 May;27:2037–2049. doi: 10.1002/sim.3150.

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