Cole Chapman, '14 PhD, joined the College of Pharmacy this past school year as an assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science.

Chapman's research interests center around statistical modeling and causal inference, with applications in health informatics, patient-centered outcomes, and comparative effectiveness.

The broad goals of his applied research are to support patients’ and providers’ ability to make more informed decisions specific to their needs and priorities, build more complete understanding of the limitations of novel methods for causal inference, and improve transparent communication of uncertainty around model insights.

In his short time with the college, Chapman published a research article in the Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery that showed variability of opioid prescribing for post-surgical pain.

He also published another in the American Physical Therapy Association's Physical Therapy—with former UI College of Pharmacy faculty member John Brooks—that evaluated properties of two alternative patient-reported outcome measures for use in assessing performance of providers. Specifically, the study considered patients who had been experiencing neck and back pain but did not have surgery, and whether their reported outcomes of therapy effectively measured the performance of the physical therapists who had worked with them.

Prior to returning to the college as a faculty member after graduation, Chapman was an assistant professor with the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health, where he worked with the Center for Effectiveness Research in Orthopaedics and Prisma Health.

Both Chapman and his wife, Anna, were born in Dubuque, Iowa. They have two children.