Training Expectations Mahdi Najafzadeh

Master's and Doctoral Research Award Candidates: Provide an overview describing how the training you expect to acquire
will contribute to your productivity and to the research goals you hope to achieve.

I am pursuing my PhD program in the area of health economics and health outcomes evaluation. I
believe that my past work experience as a health economist and my previous education in applied
science and economics provide the necessary tools and background for success in this research area. I
have worked as a full time health economist in Collaboration for Outcome Research and Evaluation
(CORE – more information at www.core.ubc.ca) with Drs. Carlo Marra and Larry Lynd for more than
two years. I have been involved in more than 15 research projects and I have had the opportunity to lead
some of those studies. Those projects have addressed important policy questions for provincial health
organizations (BC Center for Disease Control and BC Cancer Agency) as well as current issues in the
area of health services research resulting in a number of publications and reports. I believe, following an
intensive PhD program in CORE, this training will further enhance my productivity.

During my PhD I will take courses in epidemiology, biostatistics and economics to acquire additional
theoretic and technical background for developing my research ideas. Guidance from my supervisors,
Drs. Carlo Marra and Aslam Anis, whose expertise includes quality of life research and health
economics, will be invaluable in developing a productive line of research in my PhD program. My
supervisors and other scientists that I am working with in CORE have successful records in the area of
my research. The researchers currently working with the CORE are from variety of backgrounds such as
health economists, clinicians, epidemiologists, biostatisticians, post-doctoral fellows and graduate
students that provides me with an excellent, multidisciplinary learning environment in CORE.

Scientist from variety of disciplines and institutes are invited to the Work in Progress sessions that are
regularly held at St. Paul’s hospital and present their latest research in health outcomes evaluation.
Health Economics Rounds are the other informative meetings in that researchers from CHÉOS, CORE,
the British Columbia Center for Disease Control (BCCDC) and British Columbia Cancer Agency
(BCCA) share their ongoing research in the area of health economics. Besides providing a great
opportunity for learning and networking, those meetings offer an excellent opportunity to present my
research and I can benefit from the feedback given by attending scientists. In addition, the weekly
seminars and Student Journal Club for pharmacoepidemiology and outcomes research that brings
together students and experienced researchers helps to enhance participants' literature evaluation skills
are the other valuable meetings that are available for me through the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
at UBC.

I have access to CORE’s parallel multiprocessor blade server and a number of valuable software that
provides an exceptional computing and data management capacity that is essential part of my research.
By having access to those resources, I have begun to learn parallel programming skills that significantly
expedite data analysis and modeling process.

My proposed research question that is about the Effect of Emerging Direct to Consumer (DTC) Genetic
Risk Profiles on the Health Care, is a broad topic that has raised many ethical, legal, economic, social
and health related issues in the news, Internet and academic journals. Although in the current proposed
study, I have focused only on two specific objectives, I have developed several research questions
beyond the scope of the current phase of my study that can shape my future research career. Those
future directions include the effect of DTC genetic tests on families and their quality of life, effect on
insurance market (as a result of adverse selection and moral hazard) and effect on time preference of
individuals and their economic decisions. Completion of current phase of my study will enable me to
initiate further interesting studies in collaboration with my supervisors.

1 October 2008
Training Expectations Mahdi Najafzadeh

I am hopeful that upon completion of my degree, I will have the necessary skills to be able to identify
and define research questions with significant applications in promoting the health and well- being of
the society. During my PhD program, in addition to broadening my knowledge of literature and
technical skills, I will especially emphasize on developing leadership and management capabilities that
are necessary to create and facilitate research teams as an independent scientist. Also, the development
of my abilities in scientific communication and knowledge translation including presentations and
publications, are my additional training priorities. By following this plan, I anticipate to gain the
necessary qualifications for effective teaching and research in academia that is my future goal.

2 October 2008