Doctoral Student Wins Best Poster Award at International Conference

UNC Charlotte Health Services Research doctoral student Laura Clark has been recognized with a best research poster award at the 20th Annual European Congress of the International Society For Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR).

Clark was selected for the best poster award in the student category for her work on the burden of a renal transplant among Medicare beneficiaries with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease

“Laura is an exceptionally focused and driven doctoral student and represents the Health Services Research Ph.D. program well with her knowledge of the complexity of the U.S. healthcare system and the research methods tools to answer complicated questions that affect patients, providers and the policy makers,” said Dr. Christopher Blanchette, Director of Health Analytics and the Data Science Initiative for the College of Health and Human Services.

ISPOR, the professional society for health economics and outcomes research, is an international, multi-stakeholder, nonprofit dedicated to advancing HEOR excellence to improve decision making for health globally. The Society is the leading source for scientific conferences, peer-reviewed and MEDLINE-indexed publications, good practices guidance, education, collaboration, and tools/resources in the field. This year’s ISPOR congress, centered on the theme “The Evolution of Value in Health Care,” drew nearly 5000 delegates representing 77 countries.

Clark currently holds a part-time contract position at Precision Extract where she assists in the development of real world evidence to support clients’ value proposition in pharmaceutical and device industries. She also works as a Research Associate in the Data Science Initiative (DSI) where she uses large datasets top navigate through the challenges of “Big Data” with clinical and industry experts, and has contributed to publications appearing in the Journal of Medical Economics and Journal of Cultural Diversity.

Laura Clark is graduate of the UNC Charlotte bachelor’s and master’s programs in kinesiology. She expects to complete her Ph.D. in Health Services Research in 2019.