{"id":195344,"date":"2021-04-23T15:53:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-23T19:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/?post_type=bu-article&#038;p=195344"},"modified":"2021-11-04T12:22:30","modified_gmt":"2021-11-04T16:22:30","slug":"flexing-her-math-muscles","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/articles\/2021\/flexing-her-math-muscles\/","title":{"rendered":"Flexing Her Math Muscles"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin sphnews-block-editorial-leadin has-media-focus-center-middle\">\n\t\t<div class=\"container-lockup\">\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-leadin-media\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-outer\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-inner\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"wp-prepress-tag\">Student Profile<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"head\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFlexing Her Math Muscles\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h4 class=\"deck\">Elizabeth Mulvey, an attorney and part-time MPH student, plans to use her biostatistics training to help prevent adverse medical outcomes.<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar js-block-editorial-metabar sphnews-prepress-layout-metabar\">\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-date\">April 23, 2021<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-credits\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul data-credit-type=\"By\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/authors\/corinne-steinbrenner\/\">Corinne Steinbrenner<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-share js-bu-prepress-share-tools\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-action\"><\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\n\n\n<p>During her 20 years as a partner at Crowne &amp; Mulvey LLP, Elizabeth Mulvey has tried hundreds of medical malpractice cases throughout New England. Working with so many people who have been injured by the healthcare system sparked an interest in improving patient safety. \u201cIt\u2019s better to prevent harm,\u201d she says, \u201cthan to give people compensation for it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/sph\/files\/2021\/04\/liz-mulvey-600x362-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-195350\" width=\"368\" height=\"228\"\/><figcaption>Elizabeth Mulvey (SPH&#8217;21)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;Mulvey enrolled in the part-time Master of Public Health program in biostatistics to explore the idea of harnessing data to reduce devastating medical mistakes. \u201cI\u2019ve certainly never thought that doctors and nurses set out to hurt patients,\u201d she says. \u201cBut having represented lots of people over the years, it seems like there are particular types of patients and particular situations that tend to have bad outcomes. And I\u2019ve always wondered, if you had enough data, could you identify risk factors for bad outcomes and perhaps prevent them by making people aware of them?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mulvey sees several other intersections between statistics and the law. A current topic of discussion in the field, for example, is structural racism in the legal system and whether minorities are treated differently by the courts. Thirty years ago, Mulvey says, there were no definitive ways to answer those questions. \u201cNow, so much data is computerized that it\u2019s available for analysis, so there are ways to explore questions like that and to document disparities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More broadly, she says, lawyers are sometimes called upon to interpret statistics but aren\u2019t always up for the challenge. \u201cUnfortunately, most people went to law school because they weren\u2019t good at math. You show them something with statistics, and they want to head for the hills.\u201d But statistics can be powerfully persuasive\u2014to an opponent, to a jury, to a judge. \u201cAnd so I think lawyers are well served to understand statistics,\u201d Mulvey says, so they can use them correctly in their own arguments and identify when they\u2019re being misused in someone else\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> \u201cI was always sort of a math kid,\u201d Mulvey says, but as a high schooler, she didn\u2019t see many practical applications for mathematics and so let her interest wane. During her first biostatistics course at SPH\u2014Quantitative Methods for Public Health\u2014her mathematical abilities were immediately obvious, says her instructor, Professor Michael LaValley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cShe did very, <em>very<\/em> well in the class,\u201d he says. \u201cShe really stood out\u2014and there were some really good students in that class, so to be a stand-out was quite something.\u201d When Mulvey asked to take LaValley\u2019s logistic regression course without completing all its prerequisites, he readily agreed, knowing Mulvey would have no problem mastering the material. \u201cAnd she proved me right,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;Mulvey, who also holds a master\u2019s degree in health informatics from the Medical University of South Carolina, has finished the requirements for her SPH biostatistics degree, but she isn\u2019t finished flexing her math muscles. BU\u2019s Evergreen program allows area residents age 58 and over to audit classes for a nominal fee, and Mulvey is already planning to use the program to continue taking statistics courses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During her 20 years as a partner at Crowne &amp; Mulvey LLP, Elizabeth Mulvey has tried hundreds of medical malpractice cases throughout New England. Working with so many people who have been injured by the healthcare system sparked an interest in improving patient safety. \u201cIt\u2019s better to prevent harm,\u201d she says, \u201cthan to give people [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7185,"featured_media":195350,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[503,3380,3584],"bu-publication":[3516],"sphnews-article-category":[3520,3521,3770],"sphnews-topic":[],"bu_edition":[3769],"media_type":[],"profile_tax":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/195344"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7185"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195344"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/195344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":203499,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/195344\/revisions\/203499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195344"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=195344"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-article-category?post=195344"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-topic?post=195344"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=195344"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=195344"},{"taxonomy":"profile_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_tax?post=195344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}