I build production data systems for healthcare organizations that can't afford to get the numbers wrong.
I started in writing and editing, spent nearly a decade in mixed-methods health services research at UW-Madison starting in 2009, and moved into data engineering when I realized the tools I needed to study complex healthcare systems didn't exist yet. The thread across all of it is an interest in complex systems, not numbers for their own sake. The numbers and tools are just the best available instrument for whatever system I'm studying. Right now that means Medicare Star Ratings, HEDIS pipelines, and data integration across claims and eligibility sources. I build with Python and SQL and I care most about analytics that ship as products, not reports. I'm now leading a data function and moving deliberately into organizational leadership — because the problems I want to work on require change at a scale that individual technical contribution can't reach. I continue to engage with research questions at the edges of the field — my writing focuses on methodology problems in healthcare data that don't have clean answers yet.
Years Experience
Organizations
Blog Posts
Technical Skills
Publications
Presentations
52 weeks of writing activity
Technical documentation and literature review supporting the ordinal logistic regression model used in the interactive Medicare Star Rating predictor on this site.
ECDS adoption is not just a data modernization effort. It introduces measurable distribution risk into the Stars ecosystem.
Concurrency sounds like “do more at once.” In real data systems it’s mostly coordination under constraint, and in healthcare analytics the constraints include trust, auditability, and deadlines.
How version control and pull requests transformed healthcare analytics from chaotic file management into transparent, collaborative systems that save lives.
Standalone, in-browser dashboard implemented as a single HTML file using Chart.js 4.4.1, PapaParse 5.4.1, jsPDF 2.5.1, and chartjs-plugin-datalabels to visualize local CSV data and generate PDF reports with no server dependency and no data leaving the user's machine.
Full-stack MVP built with FastAPI, PostgreSQL, and Redis/Celery that uses O*NET occupation and skill data with logistic-regression calibration to surface job-transition paths — originally motivated by healthcare workforce shortages and the question of which adjacent roles clinical and administrative staff can reskill into. Generates Ready Now, Trainable, and Long-Term Reskill recommendations with gap analysis.
Analytics used in case study at OCHIN, Inc. examining healthfinch's Charlie Practice Automation Platform implementation across multiple community health centers. Focus on workflow optimization and return on investment achieved through data-driven decision making.
Analyzed organization-wide care delivery changes using interrupted time series analysis on clinic panel data. Measured impact of change initiatives with segmentation and regression modeling.
Redesigned primary care patient survey for UW Health Patient Relations/Resources department. Conducted pretesting with patient interviews to ensure survey validity and usability improvements.
Conducted research studying cancer prevention screening rates in patients with co-morbid severe mental illness using logistic regression and the Elixhauser Comorbidity Index.
Led comprehensive mixed-methods study on how environmental design influences team interactions in family medicine clinics. Secured $18,000 grant, conducted 120 hours of observations, facilitated 9 focus groups with 40 participants.
Analysis of cost patterns and savings achievement across Medicare Shared Savings Program ACOs, finding that higher-baseline-cost organizations were more likely to achieve shared savings.
Qualitative study examining how primary care teams use and optimize EHR systems, identifying key barriers and facilitators to effective adoption.
3 additional peer-reviewed publications — View all on Google Scholar
17 conference presentations and seminars between 2010 and 2017, spanning implementation science, EHR optimization, primary care redesign, and patient engagement. Presented at AHRQ, AMIA-affiliated, and national primary care research venues.
Baltimore Health Analytics
Leading the data engineering and analytics methodology function for a Medicare Advantage quality platform — coordinating engineering, QA, and data science across two geographies, owning the product roadmap, and translating CMS regulatory guidance into production-grade systems.
Health Catalyst
Owned the data platform for a clinical quality product used by health systems nationwide.
healthfinch
Promoted to lead the analytics function and tie it directly to revenue.
healthfinch
Built the reporting infrastructure from scratch.
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health
Nine years across the UW School of Medicine, starting as a research specialist and advancing to lead statistician on published, federally-funded work.
Sustainable Clarity
Joanna Laucirica, PMP
Director, Customer Operations, Health Catalyst
Jessica McCay
Director of Customer Success, Health Catalyst
University of Wisconsin-Madison
University of Wisconsin-Madison
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Most production work lives in private repos. Public repos reflect personal projects, research tools, and open learning work.
Free, local Medicare Advantage news insight monitor that fetches public sources, scores items for analytic relevance, and posts structured alerts to a webhook endpoint (Teams-compatible or generic)
MVP web application that uses O*NET occupation skill data to help users discover job transition opportunities based on current skills and experiences
I'm always interested in conversations about hard problems in healthcare data — whether that's a collaboration, a consulting engagement, or just comparing notes on something you're working through.
name | role | domain | tools -------------+--------------------+-----------------------------------+---------------------- Zaher Karp | Lead Data Engineer | Healthcare Payer / Regulated Data | SQL, Python, dbt, AWS (1 row)