Research Interests

Dr. Fohner is a genetic epidemiologist aiming to apply informatics to improve the usefulness of pharmacogenetic prediction models and to expand their equitable implementation. She combines highly granular heterogeneous clinical data from electronic medical records with extensive genotyping data to characterize variability in drug response and to develop predictive models for changing drug choice or drug dose for an individual -- also known as personalized medicine. She approaches genetic epidemiology through an ELSI (ethical, legal, social implications) lens, and aims to identify and eliminate disparities in the benefit of and access to genetic knowledge. In addition to her work within a large integrated health system, she partners with the Northwest Alaska Pharmacogenetics Research Network to address genetic epidemiology and public health questions in communities of the Pacific Northwest.