Research Groups
Andrea Schaffer
BSc, MSc, MBiostat, PhD
Senior epidemiologist
Andrea Schaffer is an epidemiologist who has been primarily working on OpenSAFELY since 2022 and has over 15 years' experience working with routine data. Her research interests include using routine data to understand how medicines are used in the population, with a particular interest in methods for evaluating the impact of policy interventions on medicine use and health outcomes (e.g. interrupted time series analysis, regression discontinuity). Prior to coming to the University of Oxford, she was based in Australia and obtained her PhD in pharmacoepidemiology from the University of New South Wales, and also has an MSc in Epidemiology (McGill University), and an MBiostat in Biostatistics (University of Sydney).
She is open to discussing project ideas with prospective DPhil students, particularly those interested in pharmacoepidemiology, health service utilisation, and time series analysis.
Recent publications
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Effect of the 2022 COVID-19 booster vaccination campaign in people aged 50 years in England: Regression discontinuity analysis in OpenSAFELY-TPP
Journal article
Schaffer AL. et al, (2025), Vaccine, 59, 127257 - 127257
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Opioid prescribing to people on orthopaedic waiting lists during the COVID-19 pandemic in England: a study using OpenSAFELY-TPP
Preprint
Higgins R. et al, (2025)
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Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on antidepressant prescribing with a focus on people with learning disability and autism: an interrupted time series analysis in England using OpenSAFELY-TPP
Journal article
Cunningham C. et al, (2025), BMJ mental health, 28
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The relative toxicity of medicines detected after poisoning suicide deaths in Australia, 2013–19: a data linkage case series study
Journal article
Lim J. et al, (2025), Medical Journal of Australia
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The importance of properly specifying your target trial emulation: commentary on Mésidor et al.
Journal article
Schaffer AL. and Hulme WJ., (2025), J Clin Epidemiol