![](https://www.niss.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_photo/public/individual_bio_photos/d-zeraatkar-.png?itok=U-NphDYR)
Dena Zeraatkar, PhD is a health research methodologist from Canada and an Assistant Professor based at McMaster University. She is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Medical School, before which she completed her doctoral training in the Health Research Methodology Graduate Program at McMaster University. She has over 50 publications, many of which have been in high-impact journals such as Annals of Internal Medicine and BMJ.
Her research expertise includes living systematic reviews and guidelines, synthesis of observational evidence, and nutrition. Her research aims to improve methods for evidence synthesis and evaluation--particularly for observational studies.
People all over the world are conducting research to address important health or public health problems. These studies, however, often produce conflicting findings, are published faster than people can keep read them and make sense of them, and come with strengths and limitations that may not be immediately apparent. I take all of these studies, evaluate their quality, and use them to optimally inform healthcare and public health decisions.
Dr. Zeraatkar, an assistant professor in the Department of Anesthesia and the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact, has won a 2023 Gairdner Early Career Investigator Award.