About

Pamela Ann Shaw, Ph.D., is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Biostatistics in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine. She is also an Affiliate Faculty member at the Leonard Davis Institute and a Senior Scholar at the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Dr. Shaw serves as the Director of the Biostatistics & Data Science Core at the Penn Center for AIDS Research. Her research expertise includes methodology to address covariate and outcome measurement error, the evaluation of diagnostic tests, and the design of medical studies. She has a particular interest in using biomarker studies to calibrate exposure measurements in nutritional, physical activity epidemiology, and environmental health. Recently, she developed a novel rank test to evaluate composite survival outcomes in the presence of interval censoring. Dr. Shaw has collaborated on various epidemiologic and clinical studies, focusing on infectious and chronic diseases.

Research topics

• Internal medicine
• Data Mining
• Medicine
• Computer Science
• Genetics
• Statistics
• Immunology
• Nursing
• Biology
• Family medicine
• Econometrics
• Mathematics
• Virology

Selected publications

• A roadmap to independence: The K'ómoks First Nation comprehensive community plan and developer guidelines

  VIURRSpace (Vancouver Island University) · 2026-03-12

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Aweetnakula means “one with the land and sea” in Kwakwaka’wakw (one of the languages spoken by the people of K’ómoks First Nation). This phrase sums up the philosophy and direction of future development in K’ómoks territory, which has grown from the relationship we have had with the lands and sea since time immemorial, building on the past and developing a roadmap to new opportunities. Building upon this philosophy, the K’ómoks First Nation has taken a proactive approach to planning, which has included an award-winning Comprehensive Community Plan (CCP) as well as the creation of a Developer Guidelines and Protocols booklet. This article outlines the approach that has been taken by the K’ómoks First Nation to ensure that the bountiful relationship with their land continues.

  PublisherDOI

• [Book review] A reader in Canadian planning: Linking theory and practice

  VIURRSpace (Vancouver Island University) · 2026-03-12

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Book review of "A Reader in Canadian Planning: Linking Theory and Practice" edited by Jill Grant (Scarborough, ON: Thomson Nelson, 2008).

  PublisherDOI

• Say goodbye to small retail: Should we care?

  VIUSpace (Vancouver Island University Library) · 2026-03-12 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  This article poses the question as to why planners should be concerned about the declining health of the small retail sector. It looks at the contributions that this sector makes to the health and vibrancy of local communities, the reasons for the sector's decline, and what jurisdictions in other countries have done to try to stem the tide. It attempts to show, from a full-cost accounting perspective, how the loss of a viable small retail sector should be anything but a matter of indifference to planners and other civic leaders.

  PublisherDOI

• Sensitivity Analysis for Binary Outcome Misclassification in Randomization Tests via Integer Programming

  Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics · 2025-02-04 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Conducting a randomization test is a common method for testing causal null hypotheses in randomized experiments. The popularity of randomization tests is largely because their statistical validity only depends on the randomization design, and no distributional or modeling assumption on the outcome variable is needed. However, randomization tests may still suffer from other sources of bias, among which outcome misclassification is a significant one. We propose a model-free and finite-population sensitivity analysis approach for binary outcome misclassification in randomization tests. A central quantity in our framework is "warning accuracy," defined as the threshold such that a randomization test result based on the measured outcomes may differ from that based on the true outcomes if the outcome measurement accuracy did not surpass that threshold. We show how learning the warning accuracy and related concepts can amplify analyses of randomization tests subject to outcome misclassification without adding additional assumptions. We show that the warning accuracy can be computed efficiently for large data sets by adaptively reformulating a large-scale integer program with respect to the randomization design. We apply the proposed approach to the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT). We also developed an open-source R package for implementation of our approach.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Recruitment of mid‐life adults to a randomized clinical trial: The multicultural healthy diet study to reduce cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease risk

  Alzheimer s & Dementia Translational Research & Clinical Interventions · 2025-10-01

  articleOpen access

  INTRODUCTION: Poor representation of racial/ethnic minority groups limits the validity and generalizability of clinical trials and contributes to inequities in medicine and science. OBJECTIVES: To recruit a multicultural sample of mid-life individuals using multiple recruitment modalities for a randomized controlled trial of diet and cognition comparing an anti-inflammatory dietary intervention versus usual diet and the effect on cognition. METHODS: This study describes the utility of various modalities to recruit a multi-cultural cohort. Recruitment techniques, the success rate of each, and characteristics of participants are compared to representative Bronx U.S. Census statistics. Participants were identified in target communities using voter registration rolls paired with marketing lists and enriched patient lists extracted from electronic health records of mid-life (40-65 years) adults in Bronx, New York. Outreach activities, including print and social media, supplemented these lists to promote the study. RESULTS: Over 4 years of recruitment, invitation letters, followed by telephone calls, yielded the highest number of randomized recruits, with 80.5% of participants recruited prior to the pandemic and 90.1% during the pandemic. A total of 290 participants enrolled in proportion to the racial/ethnic breakdown of targeted Bronx communities. However, women were overrepresented compared to the overall Bronx population. Each recruitment modality had strengths and weaknesses. The combination resulted in reaching an important sector of the population that could benefit from interventions. Voter registration lists reached a broad spectrum of targeted communities and resulted in enrollment and randomization of the majority of participants. Online registries (e.g., ResearchMatch) and outreach activities yielded efficient enrollment. DISCUSSION: Our multi-pronged strategy led to successful enrollment of a multi-cultural sample. Although the systematic list approach was the most productive, the importance of reaching out to community was crucial. Refining techniques of online registries, working with trusted community organizations, continuous assessment, and experimentation with other modalities may be helpful. Highlights: ADRD affects US minority populations disproportionately.Multiple recruitment methods help engage the underrepresented in clinical trials.Use of voter registration and EHR lists allow recruiters to reach a wide and heterogenous audience.Letters followed by personal phone calls are effective in recruitment.Outreach to the community provides a person-to-person connection to the study.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Optimal two-phase sampling designs for generalized raking estimators with multiple parameters of interest

  ArXiv.org · 2025-07-22

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Large observational datasets, including those derived from electronic health records, are a valuable resource for medical research but are often affected by missingness, measurement error, and misclassification. Two-phase sampling with generalized raking (GR) estimation is an efficient and robust approach to statistical inference in such settings. In this approach, variables that are unavailable or measured with error in a large phase 1 cohort are obtained with higher-quality measurements in a phase 2 subsample. Previous research has studied optimal phase 2 sampling designs for inverse probability weighted (IPW) estimators in non-adaptive, multi-parameter settings, and for GR estimators in single-parameter settings. In this work, we extend these results by deriving optimal adaptive, multiwave sampling designs for IPW and GR estimators when multiple parameters are of interest. We propose several practical allocation strategies and evaluate their performance through extensive simulations and a data example from the Vanderbilt Comprehensive Care Clinic HIV Study. Our results show that independently optimizing allocation for each parameter improves efficiency over traditional case-control sampling. We also derive an integer-valued, A-optimal allocation method that typically outperforms independent optimization. Notably, we find that optimal designs for GR can differ substantially from those for IPW, and that this distinction can meaningfully affect estimator efficiency in the multiple-parameter setting. These findings offer practical guidance for future two-phase studies involving incomplete or error-prone data.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Associations of Sodium and Potassium with Obesity Measures Among Diverse US Hispanic/Latino Adults: Results from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos

  UNC Libraries · 2025-08-15

  articleOpen access

  OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate cross-sectional associations of sodium and potassium with BMI, waist circumference (WC), and body fat and to determine whether the nativity and/or duration of United States (US) residence modified these associations. METHODS: Sodium and potassium were derived from 24-hour diet recalls from 16,156 US participants of the 2008 to 2011 Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL) and from 24-hour urine in 447 HCHS/SOL participants. BMI, WC, and body fat were measured. RESULTS: Dietary sodium that was 500 mg/d higher was cross-sectionally associated with a 0.07-kg/m² higher BMI (P < 0.05) and a 0.18-cm larger WC (P = 0.04). Dietary potassium that was 500 mg/d higher was only associated with lower BMI and smaller WC among those who were foreign-born with 10 + years in the US (-0.13 kg/m² , P < 0.01 and -0.36 cm, P = 0.01, respectively) and among those who were US-born (-0.62 kg/m² , P < 0.01 and -1.42 cm, P < 0.01, respectively). Urinary sodium that was 500 mg/d higher was associated with a 0.27-kg/m² higher BMI (P < 0.01) and 0.54 kg more body fat (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Sodium intake was associated with higher BMI, WC, and body fat. Potassium intake was associated with lower BMI and smaller WC among US-born participants and participants with a longer duration of US residence.

  PublisherDOI

• Proceedings of the University of Pennsylvania 16th annual conference on statistical issues in clinical trials: Optimizing dose selection across the clinical trials spectrum

  Clinical Trials · 2025-06-10 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• The Multicultural Healthy Diet Study to Reduce Cognitive Decline & Alzheimer’s Disease: A Randomized Controlled Trial in a Diverse Cohort of Middle-Aged Adults

  Current Developments in Nutrition · 2025-05-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• The effects of the Multicultural Healthy Diet on cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease risk: a phase II randomized controlled trial in middle-aged adults

  American Journal of Clinical Nutrition · 2025-05-22 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Statistical methods for correlated outcome and covariate errors in studies of HIV/AIDS

  NIH · $3.0M · 2019–2023

Frequent coauthors

• Jackson T. Wright

  Case Western Reserve University

  85 shared

• Grace J. Wang

  Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

  85 shared

• Ana C. Ricardo

  University of Illinois Chicago

  85 shared

• Bernard G. Jaar

  Johns Hopkins University

  84 shared

• Ronald M. Fairman

  United States Food and Drug Administration

  84 shared

• Bonnie Ky

  84 shared

• Emile R. Mohler

  84 shared

• Raymond R. Townsend

  84 shared

Education

• PhD, Biostatistics

  University of Washington

  2006

• MS, Mathematics

  University of Washington

  1994

• BA, Mathematics/French

  Grinnell College

  1990