Research Interests:

Ms. Cronin's primary collaborations are with the Division of Urology, specifically looking at outcomes for patients having surgery for prostate, bladder, kidney, and testicular cancer. Ms. Cronin has worked closely with Andrew Vickers on various clinical research projects, including long-term prediction of prostate cancer based on a single blood test at age 44-50; examining the learning curve for biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy; and using decision analytic techniques for evaluation of prediction models.

Ms. Cronin has a particular interest in the interpretation of results from screening studies that are subject to verification bias. Ms. Cronin has also developed statistical code in R and Stata to implement decision curve analysis.

Selected Bibliography:

1. Cronin AM, Vickers AJ. Statistical methods to correct for verification bias in diagnostic studies are inadequate when there are few false negatives: a simulation study. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2008 Nov 11;8:75.

2. Vickers AJ, Cronin AM, Elkin EB, Gonen M. Extensions to decision curve analysis, a novel method for evaluating diagnostic tests, prediction models and molecular markers. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2008 Nov 26;8:53.

3. Vickers AJ, Bianco FJ, Gonen M, Cronin AM, Eastham JA, Schrag D, Klein EA, Reuther AM, Kattan MW, Pontes JE, Scardino PT. Effects of pathologic stage on the learning curve for radical prostatectomy: evidence that recurrence in organ-confined cancer is largely related to inadequate surgical technique. Eur Urol. 2008 May;53(5):960-6. Epub 2008 Jan 14.

4. Ulmert D, Cronin AM, Bjork T, O'Brien MF, Scardino PT, Eastham JA, Becker C, Berglund G, Vickers AJ, Lilja H. Prostate-specific antigen at or before age 50 as a predictor of advanced prostate cancer diagnosed up to 25 years later: a case-control study. BMC Med. 2008 Feb 15;6:6.