Robert Cavanaugh, PhD, CCC-SLP

Dr. Cavanaugh is an Assistant Professor at the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute for Health Professions with appointments in Communication Science and Disorders and Genetic Counseling. He specializes in quantitative methods, serving as a statistical co-investigator, consultant, and mentor for research initiatives. His skillset includes hierarchical/mixed-effects models, Bayesian methods, item-response theory, and an emerging expertise in causal inference methodology. Dr. Cavanaugh is committed to education and open science, advocating for experiential learning approaches that build strong statistical foundations for future rehabilitation and health science researchers and practitioners.

Dr. Cavanaugh's background as a speech-language pathologist in neurorehabilitation informs his teaching and research perspective. Observing disparities in care outcomes motivated his PhD work at the University of Pittsburgh, where he examined treatment dosage, mechanisms, and components for post-stroke aphasia. His current research integrates rehabilitation health services, population health, and data science, analyzing insurance claims and electronic health record data to examine healthcare outcomes and improve service delivery. He is also co-investigator on studies examining treatment dosage more broadly in interventions in the field of speech-language pathology.