Get to Know Our Quantitative Sciences Team: The Brains Behind Our Data (Kristin Arkin-Leydig)

Verana Health has a team of more than 30 quantitative scientists who work toward the goal of producing high-quality, data-driven insights that can help inform research and improve patient outcomes. 

In this blog series, we invite you to “Get to Know Our Quantitative Sciences Team: The Brains Behind Our Data.” Read more about Kristin Arkin-Leydig, quantitative scientist.

Q: How would you explain your role? 

A: I resolve inquiries by using real-world data to build out patient journeys, describe treatment patterns, and characterize health outcomes. I help answer questions regarding which patients are receiving treatments and which ones are not, how effective treatments are in different populations, and how a patient travels through the treatment journey.

Q: What attracted you to the Quantitative Sciences field? 

A: I have a background in epidemiology. I was interested in pursuing a career that leveraged data to help answer questions that could improve healthcare. Electronic health records and healthcare claims data house an incredible amount of real-world information that continues the story after clinical trials end. Quantitative sciences gives a rigorous approach to understand a diverse patient population that has historically been underrepresented in clinical research.

Q: What attracted you to Verana Health? 

A: I was initially interested in Verana Health because they have the opportunity to work with specialty data through our society partnerships. This allows Verana Health to develop narrowly focused models that generalize to large patient populations receiving similar types of care. Additionally, Verana Health’s cross-functional approach, bringing together physicians, scientists, and engineers, allows us to leverage clinical data and produce scientifically rigorous findings at scale.

Q: What inspires you to do this work? 

A: I enjoy evaluating ways to answer tough questions. At Verana Health, I have the opportunity to answer questions that often haven’t been answered before, and impact patient journeys. We’re fortunate to have a detailed view into treatment and outcomes for a large portion of the patient population with similar disease etiologies. My hope is that my work will help patients, clinicians, and regulators understand different treatment pathways and be able to make more informed decisions.

Q: What is the most rewarding part of your job? 

A: The most rewarding part of my job is knowing that the work I do can help improve people’s lives.

Q: What advancements do you see in your field in the next 5 years? 

A: Regulatory frameworks supporting the use of real-world evidence (RWE) and computing advancement, such as machine learning, will improve the types of questions we can answer using real-world data and accelerate how quickly we can get those answers. I am particularly interested in watching how RWE will help clinicians and regulators understand which therapies are most effective for patients.

When she’s not finding answers to complex questions, Kristin enjoys spending time outdoors.