
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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