Catherine Acquadro

Biography

Dr. Acquadro is actively involved in scientific communication, in the development of collaborative projects, and in the new developments and audit of MRT databases (PROQOLID, PROlabels, PMR and Outcomes Insite). Acquadro received her MD from the University of Grenoble (France) in 1990. Her medical thesis was about Inikagapi, a Lakota (Sioux) ritual of healing and renewal (sweat lodge). Dr. Acquadro joined Mapi in 1991 to create the Quality of Life Newsletter, known now as the Patient-Reported Outcomes Newsletter. In 1992, she was the European-based coordinator of the International Quality of Life Assessment (IQOLA) Project (cultural adaptation of the SF-36 in other languages) under the direction of John Ware. She was involved in the early development of the linguistic validation methodology to translate health-related quality of life (HRQL) instruments for use in multi-national clinical trials. In 1995, Dr. Acquadro was the first Managing Director of Mapi Research Trust. From 1997 to 2007, she was the coordinator of the European Regulatory Issues on Quality of Life Assessment (ERIQA) Group, and from 2000 to 2002 the coordinator of the Patient-Reported Outcome (PRO) Harmonization Group. These two projects were pioneers and instrumental in the recognition of PROs as valid criteria for the evaluation of medicines, by regulatory bodies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Agency of Medicines (EMA). They contributed to the development of the FDA guidance on PRO measures and the EMA reflection paper on HRQL. Dr. Acquadro was also co-convenor of the Cochrane Collaboration PRO Methods Group from 2001 to 2007 with Donald Patrick and Gordon Guyatt. From 1997 to 2001, she worked closely with the French Cochrane Center to convince the Cochrane Collaboration of the usefulness of including PROs in systematic reviews.

Research Interest

She is interest in scientific communication