Ralph Claude Ward

Ralph Claude Ward serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the College of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), and concurrently holds a Research Scientist position with the VA Health Services Research and Development (HSR&D) funded Health Equity and Rural Outreach Innovation Center (HEROIC) in Charleston, SC.

Dr. Ward earned his Ph.D. in Biostatistics from MUSC in 2017, with dissertation research focused on developing statistical and machine learning methodologies for assessing Veteran health disparities using International Classification of Diseases (ICD) coding systems and addressing missing data challenges in administrative healthcare records.

His research program centers on:

• Quantifying health disparities in diabetes, stroke, chronic kidney disease (CKD), lung cancer, and opioid use disorder
• Developing predictive analytics frameworks for large-scale electronic medical record datasets
• Advancing longitudinal analysis techniques including joint modeling and missing data imputation methods
• Creating robust approaches for summarizing patient comorbidities using administrative data

His methodological innovations target health services outcomes research, particularly in vulnerable Veteran populations. Dr. Ward received a 2019 VISN 7 Research Development Award to pioneer methods for identifying opioid abuse disorder patterns and predicting associated overdose/suicide risks using healthcare administrative data.

Through his dual appointment at MUSC and HEROIC, he bridges academic biostatistics with real-world health equity applications, focusing on rural outreach and disparities reduction in chronic disease management.