Rohit Vashisht

I’m a clinical data scientist at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). I work at the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute and in the Pediatrics department at the School of Medicine. I’m also affiliated with UCSF Center for Real World Evidence team, working with Prof. Atul Butte. I obtained Ph.D in biomedical science from the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research in New Delhi, India, and Bachelor of Engineering in Biotechnology from Acharya Institute of Technology in Bangalore, India. I completed post-doctoral work at Stanford University.

My research focuses on using real-world clinical data to create meaningful evidence that supports medical and regulatory decision-making. I develop and apply methods from causal inference and machine learning, including generative AI, to analyze data from electronic health records collected during routine care at UCSF, across the UC Health system (which includes 5 medical centers in California), and across the U.S., including sources like the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C). I lead efforts to develop efficient big-data analytic frameworks harnessing principles of distributed computing for simulating clinical trials that compare the effectiveness and safety of chemical, biological, and digital therapies. This work contributes to building post-market surveillance systems, generating critical real-world evidence, and guiding both medical and regulatory decisions. I collaborate with teams across UC Health, the U.S. FDA, and the California Department of Public Health. With over 9 years of experience working with large-scale clinical data from electronic health records at institutional, state, and national levels, I ensure compliance with HIPAA standards and aspire to develop efficient, and rigorous data analytic methods that would help guide medical and policy-level decision making in clinical care and public health.

Additionally, I help assess and maintain quality standards for the UCSF and UC Health clinical data warehouse, which uses the OMOP (Observational Medical Outcome Partnership) format capturing clinical data from electronic health records of over 9 million patients across California. In the Butte lab, I mentor Ph.D students and postdocs.

My work is currently funded by the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute and several FDA offices: the Office of Commissioner, the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, the Office of Women’s Health, and the Oncology Center of Excellence through UCSF-Stanford Center of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation program.