Home | Summer Rak

About me

Health Policy Researcher

I am a health services researcher (PhD, expected May 2024). My work centers around analyzing extensive medical claims and health records databases. My doctoral research investigates the impact of the design of government benefits on care utilization and health outcomes within underserved populations. In addition, I'm passionate about advancing the application of quasi-experimental methodologies within the field of health services research. My professional commitment is to contribute valuable insights that inform evidence-based policy decisions and foster equal access to high-quality healthcare.

I have received comprehensive training in advanced econometric and statistical methods that allow me to derive meaningful insights from observational data and randomized experiments.

In the summer of 2024, I will be joining the team at RTI.

RESEARCH

In my doctoral studies, I delve into three overarching research domains:

Analyzing the relationship between social safety net programs and health in which I ask how we might better design benefit structures to serve the individuals and households who rely on them

Documenting the landscape of state-level pharmacy access laws, characterizing the demographics of the areas they serve, and seeking to understand how these policies may or may not fully translate into practice

You can find a more detailed description of this work in the Research tab and a full list of my publications, works-in-progress, and professional experience on my CV.

Exploring via simulation how the usually ad hoc choice of time series aggregation before applying quasi-experimental analysis techniques affects estimation and inference, and investigating the role, or lack thereof, of time-unit fixed effects in the identification of the causal estimand of interest