Messy Data, Real Answers

Messy Data, Real Answers

From Humans in Public Health by Brown University School of Public Health

November 11, 2025 · 19 min · Episode 45

About this episode

Biostatistician Rebecca Hubbard discusses the challenges of using real-world health data and the importance of both real-world data and randomized control trials in public health research.

In a world teeming with health data—from smart watch accelerometry to millions of hospital system electronic records—how do researchers find out which medical treatments truly work? Biostatistician Rebecca Hubbard discusses the messiness of real-world data, the limits of randomized control trials and how both of these powerful—but imperfect—methods are essential for building trustworthy evidence in public health.

People in this episode

Guest: Rebecca Hubbard

Topics covered

  • health data
  • biostatistics
  • randomized control trials
  • public health
  • evidence-based medicine

Keywords

  • health data
  • biostatistics
  • randomized control trials
  • evidence
  • public health
  • medical treatments
  • real-world data

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Brown University School of Public Health

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