Margaret A Olsen, PhD, MPH

Research Associate Professor of Medicine

Dr. Olsen joined the Infectious Diseases Division in 2000. She received her Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Pennsylvania, and subsequently a master's degree in public health from Saint Louis University with concentrations in epidemiology and biostatistics. Dr. Olsen is a diplomat of the American Board of Medical Microbiology. Prior to joining the faculty of Washington University, she was on the faculty at Creighton University in the Department of Medical Microbiology. Dr. Olsen is an adjunct faculty member at Saint Louis University in the School of Public Health, where she teaches Infectious Disease Epidemiology. She is also the Director of the Center for Administrative Data Research, a core service of the Washington University Institute for Clinical and Translational Sciences.

Research Interests

My primary research interests involve the epidemiology of hospital-acquired infections, particularly surgical site infection, and the use of administrative and claims data to study surgical complications. I am interested in identifying operation-specific risk factors and developing risk prediction models for surgical site infections after specific procedures (particularly spinal surgery and breast cancer surgery). My other active area of research involves the development of methods for electronic and claims data-based surveillance to determine the incidence of surgical site and other hospital-acquired infections. I am also very interested in determining outcomes of hospital-acquired infections from both the societal and patient perspective, including economic costs and impact on quality of life.

Biographical Sketch

Link to Medline for selected publications

Office Location:
Washington University School of Medicine
Northwest Tower
Suite 1500A
4990 Children's Place
St. Louis, MO 63110

Telephone: (314) 454-8215
Fax: (314) 454-5392
Email: molsen@dom.wustl.edu