Early Career Professionals Network


Contact us

Email: ecp@cochrane.org

Twitter: @CochraneECP

Newsletter

Subscribe to our Newsletter for a ‘one-stop-shop’ of resources, training, events, opportunities, features, blogs relevant to Early Career Researchers. Register for a Cochrane Account > My account > Communications tab > Sign up for all of the newsletters you’re interested in, including the Early Career Professionals Network newsletter.

Starting March 2020 we have been publishing a bi-monthly newsletter:

Our mission

This group aims to provide its members opportunities to enhance their knowledge, skills, and expertise by providing a platform for international networking with early career professionals or other members in the Cochrane community. We aim to focus on the development of leadership skills for the early career members of the Cochrane community and encourage active involvement of the Early Career Professionals in shaping the mission and vision of the Cochrane community.

Core objectives

All the activities of Cochrane Early Career Professionals Network could be classified in four ‘core objectives’:

  1. International networking by exchanging knowledge, experiences, and ideas members, promoting interaction between the members, and improving possibilities for research collaborations.
  2. Representing trainees by facilitating close collaboration with the Cochrane community, allowing active involvement of Early Career Professional Cochrane members in shaping the mission and vision of the Cochrane community.
  3. Active patient involvement by exploring how we, as a scientific community, can better explore the collaboration with (younger) patients in projects and research.
  4. Knowledge translation by investigating ways in which Cochrane reviews are used and how we can maximise the dissemination of results, in collaboration with the Cochrane community.

Activities

The Early Career Professionals Network hosts regular activities, including Journal Clubs, Online Meetups, as well as active involvement at the annual Cochrane Colloquium. 

Recordings of Past Events: Check out the Early Career Professionals playlist on Cochrane's Youtube channel for recordings of past Journal Clubs and Online Meetups.

We welcome any feedback on how the Early Career Professionals Network can better serve its members and community and suggestions for new activities. Please feel free to contact us at ecp@cochrane.org.

#WhereAreTheyNow series

We have launched a series called #WhereAreTheyNow alongside the #MyCochraneStory initiative to showcase the different career paths and opportunities available to ECPs. The goal is to 1) help early career professionals in their decision making for their career and get inspired from the stories of Cochrane members with more experience, and 2) feature middle-career researchers and celebrate their dedication to Cochrane.   

If you are a mid-career Cochrane member (broadly defined as someone 5-10 years beyond their PhD or last degree with a research track record) and would like to be featured, please download the questionnaire and return it, along with a headshot, to audrey.tan@ucl.ac.uk.

Steering group

Santiago Castiello (chair)

I am from Guadalajara, Mexico. I have been working with Cochrane Mexico and Cochrane Schizophrenia since 2015. In addition, I am a member of the Cochrane Council and chair of the Early Career Professionals Network. My background is in psychology and behaviour analysis. Currently, I am a Ph.D. candidate in Experimental Psychology at St. Anne’s College, University of Oxford, UK. To know about me and my work go to my personal site.

Twitter: @psscdo

Alexis Ceecee Britten-Jones

Ceecee is a postdoctoral research fellow in ophthalmology and vision research at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Her primary research foci are genetic eye diseases and gene therapy. Her broader research interests include clinical trial design and outcomes, research implementation, and evidence synthesis methodology. As a clinician-optometrist, Ceecee is passionate about developing practical methods to implement evidence into clinical care. Ceecee is also a big supporter of effective science communication and is always open to engagement and collaboration with others in the Cochrane networks.

Twitter: @alexisceecee

Ahmad Sofi Mahmudi

Ahmad is a dentist, graduated from Shahid Beheshti Dental School in Tehran, Iran. He is working as a member of Cochrane Iran steering group and the manager of volunteer translators. Also, he is a steering member of Oral Health Department of Non-Communicable Diseases Research Center (NCDRC) of Iran, founder and manager of Dahaan project (delivering evidence-informed dentistry recommendations to the Iranian community), and a member of the Informed Health Choices (IHC) project. His areas of interest are evidence-informed healthcare, health policy and management, and oral health inequalities.

Twitter: @AhmadSofiM

Alejandro Hernández Posadas

I am originally from Mexico City. I graduated in Psychology at National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) I also did Master's Degree in Behavioral Medicine, based in the Palliative Care Service of the National Cancer Institute. I participated as an investigator in several programs for mental health issues with health workers in areas as palliative care and the emergency room. I am currently collaborating with Westhill University as a full-time researcher and member of the staff. My main interests are: health psychology , systematic reviews, risk of bias, quality of evidence in contextual behavioral interventions.

Amena El-Harakeh

Amena is a PhD student in Community Health and Health Policy at the City University of New York (CUNY). She worked at the Center for Systematic Reviews on Health Policy and Systems Research (SPARK) at the American University of Beirut (AUB). She received her Master’s in Public Health and her BSc in Environmental Health from AUB. Amena was awarded the Penrose Award and inducted into the Delta Omega Honorary Society of Public Health. Her main interests focus on health policy and systems research, priority setting, and health equity.

Twitter: @AmenaElHarakeh

Anna Harvey

Anna is a medical doctor and junior academic in the north of England. Her research interests are in qualitative methods and how these methods can be applied, robustly critiqued and interpreted. She mostly works in medical education research, with a clinical focus on women's health. She is a former Editorial Scholar at The BMJ and has an interest in academic publishing. Outside of medicine Anna is a fan of loud music and slow running.

Cecilie Utke Rank

Cecilie is MD, PhD in the field of Hematology with ongoing research in leukemia at the Department of Hematology and Pediatric Oncology Research Laboratory at Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. She has been engaged in the activities of the Cochrane community since the beginning of 2019 - conducting a systematic review as first author. Her main interests include personalized/precision medicine and evidence-based medicine.

Twitter: @cecilieutkerank

Dolly Sud

Dolly has worked in the UK national health service as a clinical pharmacist for 24 years split almost equally between acute/general medicine and psychiatry. During that time, she has undertaken relevant postgraduate clinical qualifications including a Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy Practice (Derby University) and Diploma in Psychiatric Pharmacy (Aston University). Recently, Dolly was successful in defending her PhD thesis exploring the lived experience of physical illness in severe mental illness

Emma Doble

Emma has lived with type 1 diabetes since the age of 4 and is passionate about patient and public involvement in healthcare. She is a patient editor at the BMJ and a consumer coordinator at Cochrane UK. Emma initially became involved in Cochrane after receiving the Rosamund Snow award to attend the 2018 colloquium as a young consumer. Since then she has been involved in working with Cochrane UK to involve more young and diverse patients, and members of the public, through the Cochrane UK Consumer Champions project.

Etienne Ngeh

Etienne Ngeh is a trained Cameroonian Physiotherapist and Cardiac Rehabilitation Specialist. He is the Head of Physiotherapy Department St. Louis University Bamenda, Cameroon and leads the Physiotherapy service of the Regional Hospital Bamenda. He is the founder and promoter of the Research Organization for Health Education and Rehabilitation-Cameroon. He joined the Early Career Professionals Network in 2019, currently working with other members to revamp the Africa Regional and Cameroon working groups.

Twitter: @ngehetienne

Eugenie Johnson

Eugenie began working with Cochrane as Editorial Assistant for Cochrane Incontinence in 2017. She is now Assistant Managing Editor for Cochrane Incontinence as well as a Training Fellow in Evidence Synthesis, based at Newcastle University, UK. As well as having an editorial role, she is also a review author with Cochrane Incontinence and continues to engage with the wider Cochrane community. Her main interests surround systematic review and other evidence synthesis methodologies, as well as consumer engagement and knowledge translation.

Elpida Vounzoulaki

Elpida is a PhD Student in Diabetes Epidemiology at the Diabetes Research Centre, University of Leicester, UK. Her research focuses on preventing type 2 diabetes in women who had gestational diabetes. Elpida is passionately curious about research, with a particular interest in prevention and management of diabetes and other non-communicable diseases, real world evidence, and medical statistics. Coming from a clinical background, Elpida has a strong interest in disseminating research to the public and making it accessible, as well as promoting the active involvement of patients in research.

Twitter: @Elpida_Vnz

Ibrahem Hanafi

Ibrahem is a resident physician in Neurology at Damascus University, and he has been involved in several Cochrane groups including Schizophrenia and Lung cancer review groups and Cochrane training network. Ibrahem's main interests are: neurology, neuroscience, Neuroimaging, medical research, logic and mathematics.

Twitter: @Ibrahem_Hanafi

Jana Stojanova

Jana is a Senior Scientist at the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology of St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, and Associate Professor of the School of Medicine, Universidad de Valparaiso, Chile. Her primary research interests are study design and evidence synthesis methods for evaluating Therapeutic Drug Monitoring as an intervention. She is a staff member of the University of Valparaiso Cochrane Centre and has participated with the Cochrane Early Career Professionals Network since 2019.

Twitter: @jana_uv

Joel Pollet

Joel is an Italian physical therapist, whose working as researcher for the IRCCS Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi, in Rovato, Italy. It works in the Cochrane Rehabilitation Headquarters, being involved in the projects of the field. Main interest are: knowledge translation and systematic review methodology.

Mariam Alwerdani

Mariam Alwerdani, MBBS, a young neurology physician-scientist. Mariam is a research fellow in the Mental Health Research Network of Egypt (MHRNE). She is interested in neuroepidemiology and translating the research findings into health care practice and community activities (from the bench to the bedside). Mariam is the co-founder of the Young Generations in Neurology (YGN) Initiative which aims to build the capacity of Egyptian junior neurologists in neurology clinical practice. Also, she is an active volunteer in the Cochrane crowd initiative and a research instructor in the International Federation of Medical Students' Association - Egypt (IFMSA - Egypt).

Twitter: @Mariamalwerdani

Meisser Madera Anaya

Meisser is a Colombian dentist, who is an assistant professor in the Department of Research, Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Cartagena, Colombia. Meisser has been collaborating with the Iberoamerican Cochrane Center, being involved in some projects related to evidence-based medicine. His main research interests are systematic reviews, quality assessment of clinical practice guidelines, evidence mapping methodology, and dental public health.

Luis E. Ortiz

Luis is a Physiotherapist, methodologist and coordinator at the UC Evidence Center (CEUC), a Cochrane affiliated center, of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile. With CEUC he has participated by delivering evidence for the updating of clinical practice guidelines for the Ministry of Health of Chile. He is a member of the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organization of Care (EPOC) group and, since its creation, is managing editor of the Chilean EPOC satellite. Luis also participates in knowledge translation initiatives at Cochrane. His main interests are in health systems research, statistics, research methods, and knowledge translation. Luis is excited to join the ECP community and help increase participation in the Cochrane network of young researchers."

Twitter: @ortizkine

Robin W.M. Vernooij

Robin is a post-doctoral fellow, employed at the University Medical Centre Utrecht in the Netherlands, with a special focus on epidemiology and nephrology. Apart from being previously employed by the Iberoamerican Cochrane Center for almost three years, Robin has been involved in the Cochrane community by collaborating with several Cochrane groups. His main interests are: systematic review methodology, guidelines, and population-based (registry) research.

Twitter: @robinvernooij

Tom Calderbank

I am a junior surgical trainee based in the UK, currently undertaking rotations with a focus on career in plastic surgery. I have been involved in research throughout medical school including taking a year to complete a research degree. I have been interested in the work of the Cochrane Collaboration since being a medical student, and have enjoyed opportunities to encouraging good research practice amongst my peers whilst at university and am hoping to further this as a young surgeon.

Wouter Timmerman

Wouter is a Belgian PhD student at the Edith Cowan University in Australia, within the School of Medical and Health Sciences. His main research focuses are on endurance exercise improvement and methodological comparisons within exercise physiology. Other research interests are systematic review methodology and meta-analyses, philosophy of science, and meta-research.

Twitter: @timmermanwouter

 

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