Cochrane is made up of 13,000 members and over 50,000 supporters come from more than 130 countries, worldwide.
Many of our contributors are young people working with Cochrane as researchers, citizen scientists, medical students, and volunteer language translators and we want to recognize the work of this generation of contributors as part of this series called, Cochrane’s “30 under 30.”
Name: Tahira Devji
Occupation: PhD Candidate, Health Research Methodology Program
Program: Department of Health Research Methods (formerly Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics), Evidence and Impact, McMaster University
How did you become involved with Cochrane? What is your background?
Early in my doctoral studies at McMaster University under the supervision of distinguished Professor, and leader in evidence-based medicine, Dr. Gordon Guyatt, I took a keen interest in the use, analysis and presentation of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) – specifically, questionnaires addressing patients’ health status (e.g. quality of life, symptoms, functional abilities) – in clinical research. Despite the increased use of PROs in the evaluation of health care interventions in clinical trials and systematic reviews, interpretation of their results remains challenging. My doctoral research aims to improve methods for enhancing the interpretation of PROs, with a focus on the concept of the minimal important difference (MID) – the smallest change in an outcome, either positive or negative, that patients perceive as important – which has proved invaluable in facilitating the interpretation of PRO results.
Given my research interests and Dr. Guyatt’s role as the co-chair of the Cochrane PRO methods group, I was encouraged to join the PRO methods group to broaden my research network, share my research interests and ideas with other members, and potentially collaborate on projects that contribute to the objectives and efforts of the group.
Read more at the source
https://www.cochrane.org/news/cochranes-30-under-30-tahira-devji
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