Since 1997

My focus is strongly rooted in systematic methods and Cochrane. I was US Cochrane Center coordinator from 1997-2002 where I developed the CENTRAL Register of controlled clinical trials. From there, I moved on to become Cochrane Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Field coordinator where I conceived and wrote $5M in grants to support the Cochrane CAM Field; I also led multiple systematic reviews for acupuncture and other CAM treatments, many published in top tier medical journals, which have made a significant positive impact on the CAM field. In the publishing world, I critically appraised and summarized approximately 900 Cochrane reviews for EBSCO’s DynaMed physician point-of-care system before taking on the role of EBM Editor where I focused on preparing evidence-based patient decision aids. I left EBSCO in June of 2020 to start my Evidence Based Patient Decision Aids LLC (EbPDAs), a venture with a former colleague with the specific aim of producing evidence summaries for PDAs. 

I am grateful to my mentors in systematic reviews and evidence-based medicine: 

Doug Altman, Barker Bausell, Lex Bouter, Sir Iain Chalmers, Edzard Ernst,  Jeanette Ezzo, Joseph Lau, SR Narahari (evidence-based Ayurveda), and Danielle van der Windt.

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Header art work by Amanda Christabel Johnson. It conveys the theme of acupuncture needles and the meta-analysis forest plot in a beautiful abstract painting. It is a snippet from a painting Amanda did for the book cover of my PhD thesis, which was awarded on November 7, 2013 from VU Amsterdam and is entitled 'Systematic reviews in the field of complementary and alternative medicine: importance, methods, and examples concerning acupuncture'.