Melissa Pfeiffer is an MPH-trained epidemiologist with over 20 years of experience in public health research and disease surveillance. As a Biostatistician at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention (CIRP) at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, she has been on staff since 2017 and a consultant for six years prior to that, with primary responsibilities in data linkage, management, and analysis.

Ms. Pfeiffer’s recent research projects include the linkage of statewide administrative New Jersey data, including crash, licensing, and hospital records, to each other and other sources to create the New Jersey Safety and Health Outcomes (NJ-SHO) Data Warehouse. Ms. Pfeiffer has primary responsibility for continued linkages to and data management of this database. 

Ms. Pfeiffer’s expertise includes the linkage and management of large and complex databases, including those maintained for surveillance and reporting purposes and those that serve primarily administrative functions. She has extensive experience conducting and evaluating probabilistic and deterministic linkages using software such as LinkSolv, QualityStage, and SAS. She became a SAS-certified base programmer in 2003 and earned a SAS advanced programmer certificate in 2011. She has taught SAS classes at universities and public health departments and has written papers for SAS user group conferences.

Prior to joining CIRP, Ms. Pfeiffer worked for the New Mexico Department of Health, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and Mount Sinai School of Medicine.