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Professor Melanie Calvert

Melanie Calvert, PhD, Professor of Outcomes Methodology at the University of Birmingham UK, has been awarded the prestigious Health Assessment Lab/Medical Outcomes Trust John Ware and Alvin Tarlov Career Achievement Prize in Patient-Reported Outcomes Measures.

Only the second person to receive this award in the UK, Professor Calvert is Director of Birmingham Health Partners Centre for Regulatory Science and Innovation and Director of the Centre for Patient Reported Outcomes Research which aims to optimize the use of patient reported outcomes (PROs) in clinical trials and routine care, to improve service delivery, enhance patient care and outcomes and ensure that the patient perspective is at the heart of health research and healthcare decision-making.

Professor Calvert said: “It is a privilege to receive the prestigious Health Assessment Lab/Medical Outcomes Trust John Ware and Alvin Tarlov Career Achievement Prize for my contribution to the field. I look forward to delivering the keynote at ISQua 2021 in Florence. I am passionate about collecting and reporting high quality PRO data that can meaningfully inform patient choices about treatments, regulatory decision making, clinical guidelines and health policy. This award not only recognises my contribution to the field but also that of my amazing team and international collaborators including our wonderful patient partners.”  

Within the University of Birmingham, Professor Calvert is the cross-cutting theme lead for PROs research within National Institute for Health Research infrastructure, including the Biomedical Research Centre BirminghamSurgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research CentreApplied Research Collaboration West Midlands and MedTech Co-operative. She is a member of the National Research Ethics Advisory Panel and is a NIHR Senior Investigator.

Professor Calvert has >180 peer reviewed publications in journals including the NEJM, BMJ, JAMA and the Lancet.  She led the development of international PRO guidance including the SPIRIT-PRO extension (JAMA), CONSORT-PRO extension (JAMA) and is a member of the EORTC led SISAQOL initiative.  She is a member of the international steering committee for the Recent publications include: PRO assessment in cancer trials (JNCI), ‘PRO Alerts’ (JAMA) Maximising the use of PROs for patients and society (BMJ), and Harnessing the patient voice in real-world evidence: essential role of PROs (Nature Reviews Drug Discovery).   

Her highly cited work has informed European Society of Cardiology guidelines, NICE and EMA guidance and Professor Calvert works closely with a wide range of national and international collaborators to maximise the reach, influence and impact of her research.  She sits on a number of international committees leading national and international strategy for PROs research/implementation including the PROTEUS Consortium which promotes tools and resources to optimize the use of PROs in clinical trials to ensure that patients, clinicians, and other decision-makers can make the best decisions about treatment options.