Kara Rudolph

Associate Professor of Epidemiology

Columbia University

About

I am an epidemiologist with research interests in developing and applying causal inference methods to better understand how to prevent and treat substance use disorders and prevent violence.

My current work focuses on understanding issues related to data support and complex exposures and developing and applying methods for transportability and mediation to understand mechanisms relevant for drug use disorder prevention and treatment in various target populations. More generally, my work on generalizing/ transporting findings from study samples to target populations and identifying subpopulations most likely to benefit from interventions contributes to efforts to optimally target available policy and program resources.

I completed a PhD in Epidemiology and an MHS in Biostatistics from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholar.

Workshops

Mediation :
- https://codex.nimahejazi.org/ser2025_mediation_workshop
- https://kararudolph.github.io/causal_mediation_workshop_applied
Beyond the ATE:
- https://beyondtheate.com

Publications

Selected Methodologic Papers:

Improving efficiency in transporting average treatment effects KE Rudolph, NT Williams, EA Stuart, I Diaz.  Biometrika, asaf027
Practical causal mediation analysis: extending nonparametric estimators to accommodate multiple mediators and multiple intermediate confounders KE Rudolph, NT Williams, I Diaz.  Biostatistics 25 (4), 997-1014
All models are wrong, but which are useful? Comparing parametric and nonparametric estimation of causal effects in finite samples KE Rudolph, NT Williams, CH Miles, J Antonelli, I Diaz.  Journal of Causal Inference 11 (1), 20230022
Using instrumental variables to address unmeasured confounding in causal mediation analysis KE Rudolph, N Williams, I Díaz.  Biometrics 80 (1), ujad037
Complier stochastic direct effects: Identification and robust estimation K. E. Rudolph, O. Sofrygin, and M. J. van der Laan. Journal of the American Statistical Association, vol. 116, no. 535, pp. 1254–1264, 2021.
Robust estimation of encouragement-design intervention effects transported across sites, K. E. Rudolph and M. J. van der Laan.

Selected Methods-y/Applied papers

Everything all at once: On choosing an estimand for multi-component environmental exposures KE Rudolph, S Inose, N Williams, I Diaz, L Calderon, JM Torres, ...  arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.17960
When effects cannot be estimated: Redefining estimands to understand the effects of naloxone access laws. K. E. Rudolph, C. E. Gimbrone., C. Matthay, I. Díaz, C. S. Davis, K. Keyes, and M. Cerdá. Epidemiology, vol. 33, no. 5, pp. 689–98, 2022.
When the ends do not justify the means: Learning who is predicted to have harmful indirect effects. K. E. Rudolph and I. Díaz. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A, vol. 185(S2), pp. 573 – 589, 2022.

Selected Applied Papers

Reducing Prescription Opioid Dose and Duration to Reduce Risk of Opioid Use Disorder Among Patients With Musculoskeletal Pain S Inose, NT Williams, KL Hoffman, A Perry, I Díaz, KE Rudolph.  Epidemiology 36 (6), 811-819
Thresholds for adjunctive medication usage and probability of initiating injectable naltrexone KE Rudolph, S Inose, NT Williams, I Díaz, RK Ross, A Bisaga, M Shulman.  Addiction 
Variation in opioid agonist dosing in clinical trials by race and ethnicity RK Ross, S Inose, M Shulman, EV Nunes, LC Zalla, AK Burlew, ...  JAMA Network Open 7 (10), e2436612-e2436612 
Pain management treatments and opioid use disorder risk in medicaid patients KE Rudolph, NT Williams, I Diaz, S Forrest, KL Hoffman, H Samples, ...  American Journal of Preventive Medicine 67 (6), 878-886 
Florida’s s Red Flag Gun Law and Firearm and Nonfirearm Homicide and Suicide Rates C Gimbrone, KE Rudolph.  JAMA, doi:10.1001/jama.2024.14465 
Optimally choosing medication type for patients with opioid use disorder. K. E. Rudolph, N. T. Williams, I. Díaz, S. X. Luo, J. Rotrosen, and E. V. Nunes. American Journal of Epidemiology, vol. 192, no. 5, pp. 748-756, 2023.
Buprenorphine & methadone dosing strategies to reduce risk of relapse in the treatment of opioid use disorder. K. E. Rudolph, N. T. Williams, A. T. Singham Goodwin, M. Shulman, M. Fishman, I. Díaz, S. X. Luo, J. Rotrosen, and E. V. Nunes. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, vol. 239, p. 109609, 2022.
Association between dynamic dose adjustment of buprenorphine for treatment of opioid use disorder and risk of relapse, K. E. Rudolph, M. Shulman, M. Fishman, I. Díaz, J. Rotrosen, and E. V. Nunes. Addiction, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 637-645, 2022.
Optimizing opioid use disorder treatment with naltrexone or buprenorphine, K. E. Rudolph, I. Díaz, S. X. Luo, J. Rotrosen, and E. V. Nunes. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, vol. 228, p. 109 031, 2021.
Helped into harm: Mediation of a housing voucher intervention on mental health and substance use in boys, K. E. Rudolph, C. Gimbrone, and I. Díaz. Epidemiology, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 336 – 346, 2021.

Projects

Team

We have an amorphous team, which is really the collection of several close collaborations. Ivan Diaz and I work together much of the time. Liz Stuart and Caleb Miles are other co-mentors of team and co-leads of our projects.