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Dr Christopher Rentsch

MPH PhD

Assistant Professor
of Pharmacoepidemiology

Room
248c

LSHTM
Keppel Street
London
WC1E 7HT
United Kingdom

Tel.
8162

I am an epidemiologist specialising in the use of electronic health records, with a focus on creating real-world evidence for the safety and effectiveness of medications.

I completed a PhD at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in 2018. Alongside a PhD, I was awarded a Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Quantitative Research Methods with Distinction. I hold an MPH in Global Epidemiology from Emory University, and a BA in Sociology from The Ohio State University.

Affiliations

Department of Non-communicable Disease Epidemiology
Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health

Teaching

I am Program Director for pharmacoepidemiology and pharmacovigilance training at LSHTM, including:

Research

In my roles within the Electronic Health Records (EHR) Research Group at LSHTM and the Veterans Aging Cohort Study (VACS) at Yale University, I perform epidemiological and pharmacoepidemiological research using some of the largest clinical and genetic cohorts in the world today.

I have received two prestigious awards from the International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology in 2021 (Emerging Leader Award) and 2022 (Special COVID-19 Award for "demonstrable impact on public health related to the COVID-19 pandemic"). 

I was co-Editor of a free, online textbook, "COVID-19 Real-World Evidence Primer," which aims to promote careful design and methodological approaches supporting causal inferences on drug safety and effectiveness that guide clinical and regulatory decisions.

In my spare time, you can find me performing around town in the London City Brass band.

Research Area
Electronic health records
Methodology
Discipline
Genetic epidemiology
Pharmacoepidemiology
Epidemiology
Statistics
Disease and Health Conditions
HIV/AIDS
Infectious disease
Non-communicable diseases

Selected Publications

Predicting counterfactual risks under hypothetical treatment strategies: an application to HIV.
Dickerman BA; Dahabreh IJ; Cantos KV; Logan RW; Lodi S; Rentsch CT; Justice AC; Hernán MA
2022
European Journal of Epidemiology
Spironolactone as a potential new pharmacotherapy for alcohol use disorder: convergent evidence from rodent and human studies.
Farokhnia M; Rentsch CT; Chuong V; McGinn MA; Elvig SK; Douglass EA; Gonzalez LA; Sanfilippo JE; Marchette RCN; Tunstall BJ
2022
Molecular Psychiatry
How do we collect good-quality data on race and ethnicity and address the trust gap?
Mathur R; Rentsch CT; Venkataraman K; Fatumo S; Jobe M; Angkurawaranon C; Ong SE; Wong AYS; Siddiqui MK
2022
Lancet (London, England)
Antiviral Strategies Against SARS-CoV-2: A Systems Biology Approach.
Prates ET; Garvin MR; Jones P; Miller JI; Sullivan KA; Cliff A; Gazolla JGFM; Shah MB; Walker AM; Lane M
2022
Methods Mol Biol
Long COVID burden and risk factors in 10 UK longitudinal studies and electronic health records.
Thompson EJ; Williams DM; Walker AJ; Mitchell RE; Niedzwiedz CL; Yang TC; Huggins CF; Kwong ASF; Silverwood RJ; Di Gessa G
2022
Nature Communications
Analysis of genetic and clinical factors associated with buprenorphine response.
Crist RC; Vickers-Smith R; Kember RL; Rentsch CT; Xu H; Edelman EJ; Hartwell EE; Kampman KM; Kranzler HR
2021
Drug and Alcohol Dependence
Early initiation of prophylactic anticoagulation for prevention of coronavirus disease 2019 mortality in patients admitted to hospital in the United States: cohort study.
Rentsch CT; Beckman JA; Tomlinson L; Gellad WF; Alcorn C; Kidwai-Khan F; Skanderson M; Brittain E; King JT; Ho Y-L
2021
BMJ
Clinical coding of long COVID in English primary care: a federated analysis of 58 million patient records in situ using OpenSAFELY.
Walker AJ; MacKenna B; Inglesby P; Tomlinson L; Rentsch CT; Curtis HJ; Morton CE; Morley J; Mehrkar A; Bacon S
2021
British Journal of General Practice
Social determinants of pertussis and influenza vaccine uptake in pregnancy: a national cohort study in England using electronic health records.
Walker JL; Rentsch CT; McDonald HI; Bak J; Minassian C; Amirthalingam G; Edelstein M; Thomas S
2021
BMJ open
HIV infection and COVID-19 death: a population-based cohort analysis of UK primary care data and linked national death registrations within the OpenSAFELY platform
Bhaskaran K; Rentsch CT; MacKenna B; Schultze A; Mehrkar A; Bates CJ; Eggo RM; Morton CE; Bacon SCJ; Inglesby P
2020
LANCET HIV
Effect of pre-exposure use of hydroxychloroquine on COVID-19 mortality: a population-based cohort study in patients with rheumatoid arthritis or systemic lupus erythematosus using the OpenSAFELY platform.
Rentsch CT; DeVito NJ; MacKenna B; Morton CE; Bhaskaran K; Brown JP; Schultze A; Hulme WJ; Croker R; Walker AJ
2020
The Lancet Rheumatology
Risk of 16 cancers across the full glycemic spectrum: a population-based cohort study using the UK Biobank.
Rentsch CT; Farmer RE; Eastwood SV; Mathur R; Garfield V; Farmaki A-E; Bhaskaran K; Chaturvedi N; Smeeth L
2020
BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care
Patterns of COVID-19 testing and mortality by race and ethnicity among United States veterans: A nationwide cohort study.
Rentsch CT; Kidwai-Khan F; Tate JP; Park LS; King JT; Skanderson M; Hauser RG; Schultze A; Jarvis CI; Holodniy M
2020
PLOS Medicine
Safety of Gabapentin Prescribed for Any Indication in a Large Clinical Cohort of 571,718 US Veterans with and without Alcohol Use Disorder.
Rentsch CT; Morford KL; Fiellin DA; Bryant KJ; Justice AC; Tate JP
2020
Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research
Factors associated with COVID-19-related death using OpenSAFELY.
Williamson EJ; Walker AJ; Bhaskaran K; Bacon S; Bates C; Morton CE; Curtis HJ; Mehrkar A; Evans D; Inglesby P
2020
Nature
Association of OPRM1 Functional Coding Variant With Opioid Use Disorder: A Genome-Wide Association Study.
Zhou H; Rentsch CT; Cheng Z; Kember RL; Nunez YZ; Sherva RM; Tate JP; Dao C; Xu K; Polimanti R
2020
JAMA Psychiatry
Polypharmacy in HIV: recent insights and future directions.
Edelman EJ; Rentsch CT; Justice AC
2019
Current Opinion in HIV and AIDS
Patterns and Correlates of Prescription Opioid Receipt Among US Veterans: A National, 18-Year Observational Cohort Study
Rentsch CT; Edelman EJ; Justice AC; Marshall BDL; Xu K; Smith AH; Crystal S; Gaither JR; Gordon AJ; Smith RV
2019
AIDS and Behavior
Point-of-contact interactive record linkage (PIRL) between demographic surveillance and health facility data in rural Tanzania.
Rentsch CT; Reniers G; Kabudula C; Machemba R; Mtenga B; Harron K; Mee P; Michael D; Natalis R; Urassa M
2017
International Journal of Population Data Science
Alcohol-Related Diagnoses and All-Cause Hospitalization Among HIV-Infected and Uninfected Patients: A Longitudinal Analysis of United States Veterans from 1997 to 2011.
Rentsch C; Tate JP; Akgün KM; Crystal S; Wang KH; Ryan Greysen S; Wang EA; Bryant KJ; Fiellin DA; Justice AC
2015
AIDS and behavior
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