Dr Tim Watkins is a Research Fellow and Biostatistician in the Department of Developmental Disability Neuropsychiatry (3DN), now part of the National Centre of Excellence in Intellectual Disability Health. He joined in 2019 after completing a Master of Biostatistics (University of Sydney and the Biostatistics Collaboration of Australia), and a PhD in Biostatistics (University of Sydney and The George Institute for Global Health), focusing on the concepts of causal inference, research bias, and uncertainty in health intervention research.

At 3DN, Tim has used linked administrative health data to examine topics including the movement of people under 65 from hospital to residential aged care, emergency department readmissions for people with intellectual disability and epilepsy, and uncommon forms of dementia. He is also working towards creating a major neuropsychiatry linked data platform.

His methodological research aims at making it easier for researchers to conduct high quality research, with less chance of bias and improved causal inference ultimately leading to findings that are more trustworthy. Ongoing work includes an analysis plan template for observational studies; and the website causaldiagrams.org that aims to make it easier for researchers to create and use causal diagrams.