They say it’s impossible to compare apples to oranges. Mohammad (Mehrdad) Forouzanfar’s job is to do just that. Mehrdad is helping IHME build two of its most important projects: the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) and the Effective Coverage of health systems.
In the GBD group, Mehrdad is trying to model different diseases using software developed at the Institute called DisMod III. He examines all of the data that are sent from researchers around the world to make sure they are compatible with the data and methods IHME is using to calculate disease burden. He then creates a model for each disease.
“If they aren’t compatible, I ask our expert groups to repair the data or go back to the source and see if there is a way to pull out data that are compatible,” Mehrdad said.
In Iran, Mehrdad worked as an assistant professor of epidemiology at Tehran University. It was there that he earned his Doctorate of Medicine and his PhD in Epidemiology.
For his PhD dissertation studying the effectiveness of hepatitis B immunizations, he worked under several professors, including Mohsen Naghavi, then part of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education in Iran and now an Associate Professor of Global Health at IHME. Without access to advanced statistical software or much in the way of local expertise on disease modeling, Mehrdad pioneered a new modeling method based on what he was able to find in journal articles.
“It started as a blind challenge to myself, and I just kept testing my results and perfecting the methodology as I went along,” Mehrdad said.
The resulting work helped persuade policymakers in Iran to begin immunizing teenagers against hepatitis B.
Some of the lessons Mehrdad learned along the way are informing his research at IHME, where he is also analyzing the effective coverage of a range of interventions in Iran. The work is a forerunner to future studies in other countries.
“The main reason I came here was to find a critical academic atmosphere where I can share my ideas and have my ideas compared to others to see how much they are truly worth,” Mehrdad said. “The people here are beyond academics. They are masters of the topic, and in talking with them, you quickly see the flaws in your thinking and how you can improve.”
Published Works
Forouzanfar MH, Foreman KJ, Delossantos AM, Lozano R, Lopez AD, Murray CJL, Naghavi M. Breast and cervical cancer in 187 countries between 1980 and 2010: a systematic analysis. The Lancet. 2011; DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(11)61351-2.
