Gabriela Vazquez-Benitez, PhD, MSC
Senior Research Investigator and Statistician "My work focuses on bridging quantitative methods to answer health questions and improve care."
About

About me
Gabriela Vazquez, PhD, is a Senior Research Investigator at Health Partners Institute, a member of the Pregnancy and Child Health Research Center and the Research Methodology Group. She earned her PhD of Epidemiology and her Master in Biostatistics at the University of Minnesota. She received the Margarette S. Kolczak Award for her contribution in methods for maternal vaccine research. Her focus areas include cardiovascular epidemiology, vaccine safety and effectiveness during pregnancy, and comparative analysis using observational data. She is an investigator for the Vaccine Safety DataLink and the Virtual Network for Effectiveness of Influenza and COVID-19 vaccines (VISION), and Sentinel networks to study medication safety.

Joined the Institute: 2010

Education and training: PhD, epidemiology and MSc, biostatistics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; MSc, demography, El Colegio de Mexico.

Overview/research interests: Multilevel data analysis, meta-analysis, generalized linear models, epidemiologic study designs, chronic disease epidemiology, pregnancy vaccine safety.

Current research activities and funding:

  • Vaccine Safety DataLink (CDC)
  • EHR-Based Decision Support for Pediatric Acute Abdominal Pain in Emergency Care
  • Comparative Effectiveness Research for Cardiovascular Benefits and Safety of Glucose-Lowering Therapies in Adults with Diabetes

Related websites: Gabriela Vazquez-Benitez
Affiliation
positions
  • Senior Research Investigator and Statistician, Vaccines
  • Senior Research Investigator and Statistician, Research Methodologies Group
  • Senior Research Investigator and Statistician, Primary care, pediatrics
  • Senior Research Investigator & Statistician, Center for Chronic Care Innovation 2010 -
  • Senior Research Investigator and Statistician, Pregnancy and child health 2010 -
    • Publications
    selected publications
    Journal Article
  • Association of the COVID-19 pandemic with routine childhood vaccination rates and proportion up to date with vaccinations across 8 US health systems in the Vaccine Safety Datalink. 
    JAMA pediatrics. 2022
  • Characteristics of state legislation addressing prescription drug price increases in the United States, 2020. 
    Journal of General Internal Medicine. 2022
  • Differences in the association between oral glucocorticoids and risk of preterm birth by data source: reconciling the results. 
    Arthritis Care & Research. 2022
  • Early estimates of bivalent mRNA vaccine effectiveness in preventing COVID-19-associated emergency department or urgent care encounters and hospitalizations among immunocompetent adults - VISION Network, nine states, September-November 2022. 
    MMWR: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 2022
  • Effectiveness of BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 second doses and boosters for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and SARS-CoV-2-related hospitalizations: a statewide report from the Minnesota Electronic Health Record Consortium. 
    Clinical Infectious Diseases. 2022
  • Effectiveness of homologous and heterologous COVID-19 booster doses following 1 Ad.26.COV2.S (Janssen [Johnson & Johnson]) vaccine dose against COVID-19-associated emergency department and urgent care encounters and hospitalizations among adults - VISION Network, 10 states, December 2021-March 2022. 
    MMWR: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 2022
  • Estimation of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine effectiveness against medically attended COVID-19 in pregnancy during periods of Delta and Omicron variant predominance in the United States. 
    JAMA network open. 2022
  • Evaluation of acute adverse events after Covid-19 vaccination during pregnancy. 
    New England Journal of Medicine. 2022
  • Point: uncertainty about estimating the risks of COVID-19 during pregnancy. 
    Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology. 2022
  • Receipt of COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy and preterm or small-for-gestational-age at birth - eight integrated health care organizations, United States, December 15, 2020-July 22, 2021. 
    MMWR: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 2022
  • A randomized trial of medical cannabis in patients with stage IV cancers to assess feasibility, dose requirements, impact on pain and opioid use, safety, and overall patient satisfaction. 
    Supportive Care in Cancer. 2021
  • Association of cardiovascular outcomes and mortality with sustained long-acting insulin only vs long-acting plus short-acting insulin treatment. 
    JAMA network open. 2021
  • Association of inadvertent 9-valent human papillomavirus vaccine in pregnancy with spontaneous abortion and adverse birth outcomes. 
    JAMA network open. 2021
  • Comparison of medical school financing plans among matriculating US medical students from 2017 to 2019. 
    JAMA network open. 2021
  • Developing algorithms for identifying major structural birth defects using automated electronic health data. 
    Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety. 2021
  • Effect of clinical decision support on diagnostic imaging for pediatric appendicitis: a cluster randomized trial. 
    JAMA network open. 2021
  • Oral corticosteroids and risk of preterm birth in the California Medicaid program. 
    The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. In practice. 2021
  • Population characteristics, use, and spending on sole-source, off-patent drugs among commercial insurance members in the United States—an analysis of outpatient claims data at a single health plan. 
    Journal of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy. 2021
  • Spontaneous abortion following COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy. 
    JAMA. 2021
  • Using a brief tool to assess healthy school environments: a pilot study. 
    American Journal of Managed Care. 2021
  • Vaccine Safety Datalink infrastructure enhancements for evaluating the safety of maternal vaccination. 
    Therapeutic advances in drug safety. 2021
  • An analysis of changes in emergency department visits after a state declaration during the time of COVID-19. 
    Annals of Emergency Medicine. 2020
  • Birth and early developmental screening outcomes associated with cannabis exposure during pregnancy. 
    Journal of Perinatology. 2020
  • Characteristics and price increases among sole-source, off-patent drugs in the United States, 2008 to 2018. 
    JAMA network open. 2020
  • Comparison of mortality and major cardiovascular events among adults with type 2 diabetes using human vs analogue insulins. 
    JAMA network open. 2020
  • Diagnostic performance of emergency physician gestalt for predicting acute appendicitis in patients age 5 to 20 years. 
    Academic Emergency Medicine. 2020
  • Evaluating the association of stillbirths after maternal vaccination in the Vaccine Safety Datalink. 
    Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2020
  • Oral corticosteroid use during pregnancy and risk of preterm birth. 
    Rheumatology (Oxford, England). 2020
  • The effects of financial incentives on diabetes prevention program attendance and weight loss among low-income patients: the We Can Prevent Diabetes cluster-randomized controlled trial. 
    BMC public health. 2020
  • Development of a clinical decision support system for pediatric abdominal pain in emergency department settings across two health systems within the HCSRN. 
    EGEMS (Washington, DC). 2019
  • Safety of guidelines recommending live attenuated influenza vaccine for routine use in children and adolescents with asthma. 
    Vaccine. 2019
  • Uptake and safety of hepatitis A vaccination during pregnancy: a Vaccine Safety Datalink study. 
    Vaccine. 2019
  • Validation of the Pediatric Appendicitis Risk Calculator (pARC) in a community emergency department setting. 
    Annals of Emergency Medicine. 2019
  • Cost-effectiveness of a community-based diabetes prevention program with participation incentives for medicaid beneficiaries. 
    Health Services Research. 2018
  • Development and validation of a novel Pediatric Appendicitis Risk Calculator (pARC). 
    Pediatrics. 2018
  • Infant hospitalizations and mortality after maternal vaccination. 
    Pediatrics. 2018
  • Performance of the net reclassification improvement for nonnested models and a novel percentile-based alternative. 
    American Journal of Epidemiology. 2018
  • Reducing diabetes distress and improving self-management with mindfulness. 
    Social Work in Health Care. 2018
  • Risk of spontaneous abortion after inadvertent human papillomavirus vaccination in pregnancy. 
    Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2018
  • Uptake and safety of Hepatitis B vaccination during pregnancy: a Vaccine Safety Datalink study. 
    Vaccine. 2018
  • Financial incentives for diabetes prevention in a Medicaid population: study design and baseline characteristics. 
    Contemporary Clinical Trials. 2017
  • First trimester influenza vaccination and risks for major structural birth defects in offspring. 
    Journal of Pediatrics. 2017
  • Identifying birth defects in automated data sources in the Vaccine Safety Datalink. 
    Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety. 2017
  • Maternal Tdap vaccination and risk of infant morbidity. 
    Vaccine. 2017
  • Maternal and infant outcomes after human papillomavirus vaccination in the periconceptional period or during pregnancy. 
    Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2017
  • Predicting neutropenia risk in patients with cancer using electronic data. 
    Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. 2017
  • Use and customization of risk scores for predicting cardiovascular events using electronic health record data. 
    Journal of the American Heart Association. 2017
  • Adapting machine learning techniques to censored time-to-event health record data: A general-purpose approach using inverse probability of censoring weighting. 
    Journal of biomedical informatics. 2016
  • Diagnostic delay and antibiotic overuse in acute pulmonary blastomycosis. 
    Open forum infectious diseases. 2016
  • Implementation of electronic clinical decision support for pediatric appendicitis. 
    Pediatrics. 2016
  • Maternal Tdap vaccination: coverage and acute safety outcomes in the vaccine safety datalink, 2007-2013. 
    Vaccine. 2016
  • Predictors of poor response to depression treatment in primary care. 
    Psychiatric Services. 2016
  • Risk of preterm or small-for-gestational-age birth after influenza vaccination during pregnancy: caveats when conducting retrospective observational studies. 
    American Journal of Epidemiology. 2016
  • Tdap vaccination during pregnancy and microcephaly and other structural birth defects in offspring. 
    JAMA. 2016
  • The effects of patient-centered depression care on patient satisfaction and depression remission. 
    Family Practice. 2016
  • A Naive Bayes machine learning approach to risk prediction using censored, time-to-event data. 
    Statistics in Medicine. 2015
  • Prevalence of chronic kidney disease among individuals with diabetes in the SUPREME-DM Project, 2005-2011. 
    Journal of Diabetes and Its Complications. 2015
  • Preventable major cardiovascular events associated with uncontrolled glucose, blood pressure, and lipids and active smoking in adults with diabetes with and without cardiovascular disease: a contemporary analysis. 
    Diabetes care. 2015
  • Safety of tetanus toxoid, reduced diphtheria toxoid, and acellular pertussis and influenza vaccinations in pregnancy. 
    Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2015
  • Who must we target now to minimize future cardiovascular events and total mortality? Lessons from the Surveillance, Prevention and Management of Diabetes Mellitus (SUPREME-DM) cohort study. 
    Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. 2015
  • Data mining for censored time-to-event data: a Bayesian network model for predicting cardiovascular risk from electronic health record data
    2014
  • Evaluation of the association of maternal pertussis vaccination with obstetric events and birth outcomes. 
    JAMA. 2014
  • Initial persistence with antihypertensive therapies is associated with depression treatment persistence, but not depression. 
    Journal of Clinical Hypertension (Greenwich, Conn.). 2014
  • Lipid abnormalities in foreign-born and US-born patients in a medical group. 
    Journal of Clinical Lipidology. 2014
  • Maternal influenza vaccine and risks for preterm or small for gestational age birth. 
    Journal of Pediatrics. 2014
  • Monovalent H1N1 influenza vaccine safety in pregnant women, risks for acute adverse events. 
    Vaccine. 2014
  • Receipt of pertussis vaccine during pregnancy across 7 Vaccine Safety Datalink Sites. 
    Preventive Medicine. 2014
  • Are benefits from diabetes self-management education sustained?. 
    American Journal of Managed Care. 2013
  • Aspirin treatment failure and the risk of recurrent stroke and death among patients with ischemic stroke. 
    Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases. 2013
  • Benefits of early hypertension control on cardiovascular outcomes in patients with diabetes. 
    Diabetes care. 2013
  • Comparison of single versus multiple spontaneous extra- and/or intracranial arterial dissection. 
    Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases. 2013
  • Determinants of neurologic deterioration and stroke-free survival after spontaneous cervicocranial dissections: a multicenter study. 
    Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases. 2013
  • Inactivated influenza vaccine during pregnancy and risks for adverse obstetric events. 
    Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2013
  • Intergenerational photovoice projects: optimizing this mechanism for influencing health promotion policies and strengthening relationships. 
    Health promotion practice. 2013
  • Maternal safety of trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine in pregnant women. 
    Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2013
  • Mortality rates and cause-of-death patterns in a vaccinated population. 
    American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2013
  • Project Wings, a coping intervention for Latina adolescents: a pilot study. 
    Western Journal of Nursing Research. 2013
  • Safety of the yellow fever vaccine: a retrospective study. 
    Journal of Travel Medicine. 2013
  • Secular trends in diagnostic code density in electronic healthcare data from health care systems in the Vaccine Safety Datalink Project. 
    Vaccine. 2013
  • Age differential between outcomes of carotid angioplasty and stent placement and carotid endarterectomy in general practice. 
    Journal of Vascular Surgery. 2012
  • Comparison of acute nonthrombolytic and thrombolytic treatments in ischemic stroke patients 80 years or older. 
    American Journal of Emergency Medicine. 2012
  • Intracranial stenosis in young patients: unique characteristics and risk factors. 
    Neuroepidemiology. 2012
  • Long-term clinical and angiographic outcomes in patients with spontaneous cervico-cranial arterial dissections treated with stent placement. 
    Journal of Neuroimaging. 2012
  • Strength of association for incident diabetes risk factors according to diabetes case definitions: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study. 
    American Journal of Epidemiology. 2012
  • Comparative effectiveness of patient education methods for type 2 diabetes: a randomized controlled trial. 
    Archives of Internal Medicine. 2011
  • Comparison between angioplasty using compliant and noncompliant balloons for treatment of cerebral vasospasm associated with subarachnoid hemorrhage. 
    Neurosurgery. 2011
  • Estimated prevalence of acoustic cranial windows and intracranial stenosis in the US elderly population: ultrasound screening in adults for intracranial disease study. 
    Neuroepidemiology. 2011
  • Five-year rehospitalization outcomes in a cohort of patients with acute ischemic stroke: Medicare linkage study. 
    Stroke. 2011
  • Impact of percutaneous transluminal angioplasty for treatment of cerebral vasospasm on subarachnoid hemorrhage patient outcomes. 
    Neurocritical Care. 2011
  • Obesogenic family types identified through latent profile analysis. 
    Annals of Behavioral Medicine. 2011
  • The effect of electronic health records on the use of clinical care guidelines for patients with medically complex conditions. 
    Journal of the American Dental Association. 2011
  • A cluster-randomized trial to improve stroke care in hospitals. 
    Neurology. 2010
  • Cost-effectiveness analysis of protected carotid artery stent placement versus endarterectomy in high-risk patients. 
    Journal of Endovascular Therapy. 2010
    • Editorial Article
  • COVID-19 mRNA vaccines during pregnancy: new evidence to help address vaccine hesitancy [editorial]. 
    JAMA.  327. 2022
    • Conference Poster
  • Factors associated with Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) compliance and weight loss among low-income participants [poster]
    2019
  • Highly motivated population provides two successful recruitment methods into the TMD self-care study and PACT program [poster]
    2018
  • PACT: a self-management program for chronic pain utilizing online education and telehealth coaching, findings of the pilot study [poster]
    2018
  • Development and validation of a risk equation for appendicitis in children presenting with abdominal pain [poster]
    2017
  • Racial/ethnic disparities in completion of the routine immunization series by age two [poster]
    2017
  • What factors facilitate weight loss among Medicaid beneficiaries participating in the diabetes prevention program [poster]?
    2017
  • Use and customization of risk scores for predicting cardiovascular events with electronic health data [poster]
    2015
  • Preventable major cardiovascular events due to uncontrolled glucose, blood pressure, and lipids or active smoking in adults with diabetes with and without cardiovascular disease [poster]
    2014
  • Validation of colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) data within the HMORN Virtual Data Warehouse [poster]
    2014
  • Creation and implementation of an analytic dataset for a multi-site surveillance study using electronic health records (EHR) and medical claims data [poster]
    2013
  • Declining rates of major cardiovascular events in adults with and without diabetes: 2005-2011 [poster]
    2013
  • Improving diabetes management with mindfulness-based stress reduction [poster]
    2013
  • DIAMOND: what predicts poor response to usual depression treatment in primary care? [poster]
    2012
  • Lipid patterns among foreign and U.S. born patients in a medical group [poster]
    2012
  • We can prevent diabetes in Minnesota [poster]
    2012
  • Does depression status impact recognition, treatment, or control of hypertension [poster]?
    2011
  • Effectiveness of using e-health records to improve dental care for medically compromised patients [poster]
    2011
  • Estimating pregnancy start dates with prenatal procedure codes [poster]
    2011
  • Improvements in self-efficacy and diabetes distress, but not glucose control, from individual diabetes education are sustained [poster]
    2011
  • Provider and staff beliefs and attitudes about creating care systems for the secondary prevention of coronary heart disease in a private medical group [poster]
    2011
  • Safety of seasonal influenza vaccine (TIV) in pregnant women [poster]
    2011
  • Safety of the yellow fever vaccine: a retrospective study [poster]
    2011
  • Which patient characteristics predict response and remission to usual primary care of depression [poster]?
    2011
    • Review
  • Assessing the safety of influenza immunization during pregnancy: the Vaccine Safety Datalink [review]. 
    American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2012
    • Abstract
  • Glycemic relapse: major threat to ongoing improvement in diabetes care [abstract]. 
    Diabetes. 2020
  • Impact of human versus analog insulins on occurrence of myocardial infarction [abstract]. 
    Diabetologia. 2017
  • All is not equal...or is it? Targeting uncontrolled cardiovascular risk factors in racial and ethnic populations to prevent major cardiovascular events [abstract]. 
    Diabetologia. 2016
  • Can financial incentives prevent diabetes in a low-income population? [abstract]. 
    Diabetes. 2016
  • Use and customization of risk scores for predicting cardiovascular events using electronic health record data [abstract]. 
    Journal of patient-centered research and reviews. 2016
  • Are composite measures of diabetes quality of care associated with major CV events [abstract 440-P]?. 
    Diabetes. 2015
  • How to minimize future CV events and total mortality in adults with diabetes: lessons from the 10,000,000 person-year SUPREME Cohort Study [abstract]. 
    Diabetes. 2015
  • Surveillance of cardiovascular events and total mortality among insured adults with and without diabetes: the SUPREME Cohort Study [abstract 55-OR]. 
    Diabetes. 2015
  • Timing of consent into a multicenter randomized controlled traumatic brain injury clinical trial conducted under exception from informed consent [abstract]. 
    Annals of Emergency Medicine. 2015
  • Improving mental health and diabetes management with mindfulness-based stress reduction [abstract] [presentation]
    2014
  • Are outcomes from diabetes self-management education sustained? A randomized controlled trial [abstract]. 
    Diabetes. 2012
  • Improved glycemic control from diabetes self-management education is not sustained [abstract]. 
    Clinical Medicine & Research. 2012
  • Season, daylight, and A1c levels [abstract]. 
    Clinical Medicine & Research. 2012
    • Book
  • Two-dimensional scan statistics for assessing vaccine safety in pregnancy (PRISM)
    2016
    • presentations
    Presentation
  • Addressing missing data and clinical relapse can improve composite diabetes quality of care measure [presentation], HMO Research Network 20th Annual Conference: Embedded Research to Improve Health
  • Benefits of early versus later hypertension treatment and control on cardiovascular outcomes in those with diabetes: clinical and research implications [presentation], HMO Research Network (HMORN) 18th Annual Conference--Learning Health Care Systems: Leading Through Research
  • Comparative cardiovascular safety of human versus analog insulins [presentation]
  • Declining rates of major cardiovascular events in adults with and without diabetes: 2005-2011 [presentation] , HMO Research Network 20th Annual Conference: Embedded Research to Improve Health
  • Do financial incentives improve diabetes prevention program outcomes among Medicaid beneficiaries? The We Can Prevent Diabetes Study [presentation]
  • Electronic health records improve the use of clinical care guidelines for medically complex patients [presentation]
  • Evaluation of the association of maternal pertussis vaccination with obstetric events and birth outcomes [presentation]
  • Impact of human versus analog insulins on mortality and occurrence of myocardial infarction [presentation]
  • Impact of human versus analog insulins on occurrence of myocardial infarction [presentation]
  • Improving diabetes management with mindfulness-based stress reduction [presentation], HMORN 20th Annual Conference: Embedded Research to Improve Health
  • Maternal receipt of trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine and risks for preterm or small for gestational age birth [presentation], HMO Research Network 19th Annual Conference: Advancing Research in the Era of Healthcare Reform
  • Medidas de bienestar emocional en adolescentes y sus padres en dos comunidades conectadas por la migración (Measures of emotional well-being in adolescents and parents in two communities connected by migration) [presentation]
  • Predictors of poor response to usual depression treatment in primary care [presentation] , HMO Research Network 20th Annual Conference: Embedded Research to Improve Health
  • SUrveillance, PREvention, and ManagEment of Diabetes Mellitus (SUPREME-DM): trends in myocardial infarction, stroke, heart failure, and all-cause mortality in patients with and without diabetes, 2005-2011 [presentation], Minnesota Health Services Research Conference
  • Safety of the seasonal influenza vaccine during pregnancy: maternal health outcomes [presentation]
  • Subject preferences in randomization assignment: comparison between randomized assignment preference, perceived intervention value, and personality type [presentation], HMO Research Network (HMORN) 18th Annual Conference--Learning Health Care Systems: Leading Through Research
  • Transformative self-management for chronic pain utilizing online training and telehealth coaching [presentation], Health Care Systems Research Conference
    • Contact
    full name
  • Gabriela Vazquez-Benitez, PhD, MSC
    • primary email
  • Gabriela.X.VazquezBenitez@HealthPartners.Com
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