Name: Carla Rodriguez Watson

Position: Director of Research at Reagan Udall Foundation for the FDA

Bio: Dr. Carla Rodriguez-Watson is the Director of Research for the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA. Dr. Rodriguez-Watson sees data as a means for addressing unmet need. Her portfolio of work includes a growing number of projects to engage diverse stakeholders to gather and improve data to better describe disease distribution, medical product utilization, and to identify health risks and outcomes across all subpopulations and species. Another body of work applies these learnings to inform and conduct clinical and post-market drug safety and effectiveness studies to improve population health. Key projects bring together communities of experts to develop and advance frameworks and tools to systematically describe and improve data sources and methods for use in pre- and post-market studies of product safety and effectiveness. Such efforts serve to operationalize regulatory guidance and support practical interpretation in a collaborative environment. These tools can then be leveraged directly to support the design and execution of regulatory studies conducted by the Innovation in Medical Evidence, Development and Surveillance (IMEDS) Program – a network of healthcare systems that advance the use of regulatory science tools and approaches, particularly those developed by the FDA’s Sentinel Initiative. Dr. Rodriguez-Watson brings her extensive background in public health surveillance and health outcomes research to this work. She earned her doctoral degree in Epidemiology from the University of Washington School of Public Health, her master’s degree in Public Health from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, and her bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University.

Why I’m passionate about patient engagement: “During graduate school in the mid ‘90s, I observed ‘patient engagement’ to be more of a means to understand how to get into a community-and inviting ‘community to the research table.’ But it’s so much more than that. Getting ‘research invited to the community table’ is about being trust worthy; valuing the expertise of the communities you aspire to serve; and partnering with communities in system or research design. I am so appreciative of this acknowledgement by 1nHealth because it means my evolution in thinking has been translated into action. But we’re not done. There is more learning and work to do. Thank you!”