Bio: Lars Hemkens, Dr.med., a 2011-12 German Harkness/Robert Bosch Stiftung Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice, is a research fellow at the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG). Previous positions include research fellow at DIeM Institute for Evidence-Based Medicine, Cologne, and staff physician in internal medicine at St. Franziskus Hospital. His work includes methods of evidence-based medicine and evidence-based health care, systematic reviews and benefit assessments (HTA reports / CER reports) in diabetes and hypertension, and research using routinely collected patient data to assess the safety of diabetic treatments. He led a milestone and very controversial study (Hemkens LG, et al "Risk of malignancies in patients with diabetes treated with human insulin or insulin analogues: a cohort study," Diabetologia 2009), which generated widespread debate and has stimulated more definitive studies. He has authored and co-authored several peer-reviewed publications and IQWiG reports. Hemkens hold a Dr.med. From the University of Cologne, and an M.P.H., Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf.
Placement: Stanford University
Mentors: John Ioannidis, Stanford University
Project: Use of Routinely Collected Health Data to Inform Policy and Practice
Description: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are the gold standard in evidence-based medicine and are essential for comparative effectiveness research. However, members of priority groups are often under-represented in RCTs, and the reporting of safety results is often insufficient. Hemkens project compared the findings of research using routinely collected utilization databases, such as claims data, EMRs, patient registries, dedicated research networks, with RCTs addressing the same question. He conducted a systematic comparison of RCT results against research using utilization databases to determine the level of concordance.