The next population health sciences research seminar will be "Evolutions in the Meaning of “Validity” for Measures in Health Care Research: From Accuracy to Argument."

Speaker Kevin Weinfurt will discuss:

• Validity is a central concern for the use of measures in research (e.g., self-report, observer report, clinician report, performance measures).
• Health researchers have borrowed perspectives on validity from psychological and educational testing traditions.
• Within psychological/educational testing over the past century, the meaning of validity has changed considerably. The current meaning has been given the catchy title of "modern validity theory."
• Recent changes in the meaning of validity are just now starting to seep into health measurement.
• Modern validity theory presents many advantages but also requires a change in how we think about validation efforts for the measures we wish to use in our own research.

When: Thursday, September 23, 3:30 – 5:00 PM

Kevin Weinfurt, PhD, is Professor and Vice-Chair of Research in the Department of Population Health Sciences in the Duke University School of Medicine. He is also a Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry, and Biostatistics and Bioinformatics at Duke. He co-directs the Center for Health Measurement (Director: Bryce Reeve, PhD). Kevin is currently serving as an advisor to the FDA as a Special Governmental Employee to contribute to FDA guidance on methods to collect and analyze data about patients' experiences in clinical trials. His areas of interest include methodological issues in health assessment, research ethics, pragmatic clinical trials, and epistemological issues in population health sciences.