Dr. Blackburn's research primarily involves leveraging large administrative data sets to evaluate public health policy and outcomes at the state, local, and national levels. He is a frequent collaborator with state and local public health agencies and has applied methodologically innovative approaches to evaluate important public health topics including dental health services and outcomes, long-term care policy and outcomes, Medicaid and CHIP coverage, and measuring health care quality. He has published over 40 peer-reviewed manuscripts in high-quality academic journals.