Richard C Gershon

Biography

Richard Gerson, PhD, is widely recognized for his expertise in advancing the use of technology for increasing the impact and reach of psychometrically robust health measurements. Having completed PhD work in both Clinical and Personality Psychology from Northwestern University, Dr. Gershon is the Vice Chair for Research in Medical Social Sciences and a Professor in Medical Social Sciences and Preventive Medicine-Health and Biomedical Informatics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He is a leading expert in the application of Item Response Theory (IRT) in individualized and large scale assessments and has developed item banks and Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT) for educational, clinical, and health applications - including cognitive, emotional, sensory and motor applications. Dr. Gershon has had a robust career in Patient Report Outcomes (PRO) and Performance Outcomes as he has acted as the principal investigator for the NIH Toolbox for the Assessment of Neurological Function and Behavior, the NIH Roadmap Patient – Reporting Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Technical Center, and the National Children's Study: Vanguard Study (South ROC). Currently, Dr. Gershon is the MPI of ECHO PRO Research Resource: A Developmentally-based Measurement Science Framework for Assessing Environmental Exposure and Child Health and is the MPI of AAD-PEPR: Asthma and Atopic Dermatitis Validation of PROMIS Pediatric Instruments. In addition to these roles, he is also a co-investigator and the Technical core PI for the National Person-Centered Assessment Resource and as a co-investigator for the NIH/NCATS project “Improving Patient Reported Outcome Data for Research through Seamless Integration of the PROMIS Toolkit into EHR Workflows.” Furthermore, he serves as the site PI for the NICHD project “A Cognitive Test battery for Intellectual Disabilities,” and the DOD project “Assessing Rehabilitation Outcomes after Severe Neuromusculoskeletal Injury: Development of Patient Reported Outcomes Assessment Instruments.” Altogether he has served as PI, MPI or co-investigator for over 60 NIH, DoD and Foundation awards

Research Interest

Throughout Dr. Gershon’s career, he has been actively involved in education including his work as an undergraduate teaching assistant, adjunct professor in the Department of Psychology, the School of Continuing Studies, and most recently as a Professor in the Graduate School of Professional Studies. He has taught courses in Psychometrics, Statistics, Research Design and Measurement Development. Altogether Dr. Gershon has taught 17 undergraduate and 18 graduate level courses. He also enjoys the r...[Read full text]Throughout Dr. Gershon’s career, he has been actively involved in education including his work as an undergraduate teaching assistant, adjunct professor in the Department of Psychology, the School of Continuing Studies, and most recently as a Professor in the Graduate School of Professional Studies. He has taught courses in Psychometrics, Statistics, Research Design and Measurement Development. Altogether Dr. Gershon has taught 17 undergraduate and 18 graduate level courses. He also enjoys the role of teacher and mentor within the context of collegial conferences and workshops. In that regard, he has made 40 invited presentations, 80 peer reviewed conference presentations, directed or co-directed more than 36 face-to-face and webinar-based workshops and authored over 90 peer reviewed articles.