Profiles

Sonia Hernandez-Diaz, MD

Adjunct Professor, Epidemiology - Boston University School of Public Health

(617) 358-3728
shernan@bu.edu
Talbot
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Biography

Dr. Hernandez-Diaz is a Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Pharmacoepidemiology Program at the Harvard School of Public Health and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health. Her main area of research has been drug safety evaluation from observational data, with a special emphasis on the analysis of patterns of use and safety of drugs during pregnancy. She has also studied the gastrointestinal and cardiovascular safety of steroidal and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and this work triggered her involvement with newly introduced COX-2 inhibitors. Her third group of research activities concerns the application of innovative methodologic concepts to pharmacoepidemiologic studies, including the use of causal structural approaches to define confounding and selection biases that might facilitate the identification, communication, and resolution of common analytical problems.

Education

  • Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, MD Field of Study: Medicine
  • Harvard School of Public Health, DPH/DrPH Field of Study: Pharmacoepidemiology
  • Harvard School of Public Health, MPH Field of Study: Quantitative Methods

Websites

Publications

  • Published on 4/8/2025

    Ge W, Godeiro Coelho LM, Donahue MA, Rice HJ, Blacker D, Hsu J, Newhouse JP, Hernández-Díaz S, Haneuse S, Westover B, Moura LMVR. Automated identification of fall-related injuries in unstructured clinical notes. Am J Epidemiol. 2025 Apr 08; 194(4):1097-1105. PMID: 39060160.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 2/13/2025

    Brett J, Cesta CE, Gillies MB, Bateman BT, Chan A, Cheng M, Cho Y, Choi EY, Cohen JM, Donald S, Furu K, Gissler M, Gomes T, Havard A, Hernandez-Diaz S, Hsieh M, Huybrechts KF, Karlsson P, Kelty E, Lai E, Ledlie S, Wang T, Leinonen MK, Parkin L, Reutfors J, Shin JY, Su C, Varney B, Wong I, Man K, Zoega H. Global trends in analgesic opioid use in pregnancy: A retrospective cohort study. Anesthesiology. 2025 Feb 13. PMID: 39946665.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 12/2/2024

    Wittström F, Cesta CE, Bateman BT, Bendix M, Bliddal M, Chan AYL, Cho Y, Choi EY, Cohen JM, Donald S, Gissler M, Havard A, Hernandez-Diaz S, Huybrechts KF, Kollhorst B, Lai EC, Leinonen MK, Li BMH, Man KKC, Ng VWS, Parkin L, Pazzagli L, Rasmussen L, Rotem RS, Schink T, Shin JY, Tran DT, Wong ICK, Zoega H, Reutfors J. Lithium Use During Pregnancy in 14 Countries. JAMA Netw Open. 2024 Dec 02; 7(12):e2451117. PMID: 39680408.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 11/14/2024

    Perucca P, Battino D, Bromley R, Chen L, Craig J, Hernandez-Diaz S, Holmes LB, Koshy KG, Meador KJ, Menon RN, O'Brien TJ, Pennell PB, Zhou D, Tomson T. Epilepsy-pregnancy registries: An update. Epilepsia. 2025 Jan; 66(1):47-59. PMID: 39540312.

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  • Published on 10/14/2024

    Olivero R, Williams PL, Sawyer G, Yee LM, Patel K, Hernandez-Diaz S, Powis K, Paul M, Chadwick EG. Birth outcomes following bictegravir exposure during pregnancy. AIDS. 2025 Mar 15; 39(4):381-386. PMID: 39411892.

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  • Published on 10/7/2024

    Shupler M, Huybrechts K, Leung M, Wei Y, Schwartz J, Hernandez-Diaz S, Papatheodorou S. The association of short-term increases in ambient PM2.5 and temperature exposures with stillbirth: racial/ethnic disparities among Medicaid recipients. Am J Epidemiol. 2024 Oct 07; 193(10):1372-1383. PMID: 38770979.

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  • Published on 9/24/2024

    Zhu Y, Hernandez-Diaz S, Bateman BT, Gray KJ, Alt EM, Straub L, Taylor LG, Ouellet-Hellstrom R, Ma Y, Qiang Y, Vine S, Mogun H, Hua W, Huybrechts KF. Development and validation of claims-based algorithms for estimating gestational age of spontaneous abortion and termination. Am J Epidemiol. 2024 Sep 24. PMID: 39317693.

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  • Published on 9/20/2024

    Thai TN, Smolinski NE, Nduaguba S, Bird S, Straub L, Bateman BT, Hernandez-Diaz S, Huybrechts KF, Rasmussen SA, Winterstein AG. Development and Validation of an Algorithm to Predict Stillbirth Gestational Age in Medicaid Billing Records. Am J Epidemiol. 2024 Sep 20. PMID: 39307537.

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  • Published on 9/3/2024

    Cortes JE, Abruzzese E, Cardonick EH, Hernández-Díaz S, Gutierrez J, Sardegna MS, Torres-Chavez E, Dinatale M, Lerro CC, Gehrke BJ, Shord SS, De Claro RA, Theoret MR, DeMaria PJ, Norsworthy KJ. Perspectives on Drug Development for the Treatment of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia in Pregnant Patients and Patients Who Are Breastfeeding. Clin Cancer Res. 2024 Sep 03; 30(17):3658-3666. PMID: 38967550.

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  • Published on 8/9/2024

    Straub L, Wang SV, Hernandez-Diaz S, Gray KJ, Vine SM, Russo M, Mittal L, Bateman BT, Zhu Y, Huybrechts KF. Hierarchical Clustering Analysis to Inform Classification of Congenital Malformations for Surveillance of Medication Safety in Pregnancy. Am J Epidemiol. 2024 Aug 09. PMID: 39123096.

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