Walter Dempsey
- Email Walter Dempsey
- (734)936-0039
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BIO
Walter Dempsey is an Associate Professor of Biostatistics and Research Associate Professor at the Institute for Social Research. His research focuses on statistical methods for digital and mobile health. His current work involves three complementary research themes: (1) experimental design and data analytic methods to inform multi-stage decision making in health; (2) statistical modeling of complex longitudinal and survival data; and (3) statistical modeling of complex relational structures such as interaction networks. In the coming years, he will continue to design and apply novel statistical methodologies to make sense of complex longitudinal, survival, and relational datasets. This work will inform decision making in health by aiding in intervention evaluation and development. Prior to joining, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Statistics at Harvard University where he worked within the Statistical Reinforcement Learning Lab under the supervision of Susan Murphy. He received his PhD in Statistics at the University of Chicago under the supervision of Peter McCullagh.
- Jessica R Golbus1, Michael P Dorsch, Yuxuan Chen, Tanima Basu, Evan Luff, Predrag Klasnja, Mark W Newman, Lesli E Skolarus, Walter Dempsey, Brahmajee K Nallamothu. 2026. Impact of Push Notifications on Physical Activity and Sodium Intake Among Patients with Hypertension: Microrandomized Trial of a Just-in-Time Adaptive Intervention. Journal of Medical Internet Research 28(1):e78218.
- Dorsch, Michael P, Walter Dempsey, Krambrink, Amy, Ganai, Sabah, Greer, Kaitlyn M, Ali, Mohamed S, Gesierich, Chelsie, O'Neill, Margaret, Nallamothu, Brahmajee, Hummel, Scott L. 2025. A Just-In-Time Adaptive Mobile Application Intervention to Reduce Sodium Intake and Blood Pressure in Patients with Hypertension: Rationale and Design of the LowSalt4Life 2 Trial. American Heart Journal
- Bentley, Kate H., Ball, Molly I., Bose, Swaraj, Fortgang, Rebecca G., Coppersmith, Daniel D. L., DeMarco, Dylan, Hu, Nancy, Herrmann, Felipe, Daniel, Merryn, Walter Dempsey, Nock, Matthew K.. 2025. Pilot microrandomized trial of a brief digital intervention for suicidal thoughts. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
- Soo Ji Serisse Choi, Pei-Yao Hung, Mengyun Liu, Walter Dempsey, Mark W Newman, Predrag Klasnja. 2025. Improving Affective Associations With Physical Activity via a Message-Based mHealth Intervention (WalkToJoy): Proof-of-Concept Study. Journal of Medical Internet Research 27(1):e75792.
- Caleb Mayer, Olivia Walch, Walter Dempsey, Kevin Hannay, Caroline Clingan, Zoe Bowen, Michelle Rozwadowski, Zachery R. Reichert, N. Lynn Henry, Joshi J. Alumkal, Muneesh Tewari, Daniel B. Forger, Sung Won Choi. 2025. A circadian and app-based personalized lighting intervention for the reduction of cancer-related fatigue. Cell Reports Medicine 6(3)
- Madeline R. Abbott, Inbal Nahum-Shani, Cho Y. Lam, Lindsey N. Potter, David W. Wetter, Walter Dempsey. 2024. A latent variable approach to jointly modeling longitudinal and cumulative event data using a weighted two-stage method. Statistics in Medicine 43(21):4163-4177.
- John J. Dziak, Daniel Almirall, Walter Dempsey, Catherine Stanger, Inbal Nahum-Shani. 2024. SMART Binary: New Sample Size Planning Resources for SMART Studies with Binary Outcome Measurements. Multivariate Behavioral Research 59(1):1-16.
- Inbal Nahum-Shani, Dziak, John J., Venera, Hanna, Pfammatter, Angela F., Spring, Bonnie, Walter Dempsey. 2024. Design of experiments with sequential randomizations on multiple timescales: the hybrid experimental design. Behavior Research Methods 56:1770–1792.
- Jessica R. Golbus, Jieru Shi, Kashvi Gupta, Rachel Stevens, V.Swetha E. Jeganathan, Evan Luff, Thomas Boyden, Bhramar Mukherjee, Sarah Kohnstamm, Vlad Taralunga, Vik Kheterpal, Sachin Kheterpal, Kenneth Resnicow, Susan Murphy, Walter Dempsey, Predrag Klasnja, Brahmajee K. Nallamothu. 2023. Text Messages to Promote Physical Activity in Patients With Cardiovascular Disease: A Micro-Randomized Trial of a Just-In-Time Adaptive Intervention. Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes
- Golbus, Jessica R., Gupta, Kashvi, Stevens, Rachel, Jeganathan, V.Swetha E., Luff, Evan, Shi, Jieru, Walter Dempsey, Boyden, Thomas, Mukherjee, Bhramar, Kohnstamm, Sarah, Taralunga, Vlad, Kheterpal, Vik, Murphy, Susan, Klasnja, Predrag, Kheterpal, Sachin, Nallamothu, Brahmajee K.. 2023. A randomized trial of a mobile health intervention to augment cardiac rehabilitation. npj Digital Medicine 6(1):1-8.