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On July 5th, MQ Mental Health Research is excited to enjoy with you our very first Research Appreciation Day – a day to take a moment to recognize how vital research is to improving our world. There are so many great people who dedicate their lives to improving our lives by choosing a career in research. So we thought we’d introduce some of them to you, so please meet some of them our recent comrades.
Research Appreciation Day – Presentation by Dr. Amy Ronaldson
Name: Dr Amy Ronaldson, MQ Fellow 2022, King’s College London, UK
Professionnal career : Research in psychology and psychiatry
Current research: Mental health interventions; mental health and infection
What does the daily life of a researcher look like?
I would say that the daily life of a researcher is quite varied and can be quite unpredictable.
In my field (mental health data science), one day may be spent analyzing data for one project, while the next is spent writing a scientific paper for another. This, of course, is punctuated with meetings, research collaborations, administrative tasks and (eventually) teaching tasks.
It’s a varied and rich working life, but planning can be difficult – you need to be flexible and the ability to self-motivate is key.
What are the disadvantages of data collection? How can this be remedied?
There are many pitfalls when it comes to collecting data, but the main one I would say is bias. In mental health research, a lot of data is collected using questionnaires. Although questionnaires can give you rich data, it can mean that we end up excluding people who are least likely to participate in research. This can lead to research findings not necessarily being applicable to certain populations, and therefore study findings lack ‘generalizability’.
In mental health research, we are now seeing an increase in the use of “routinely collected data”. This is data collected for purposes other than research and may include things such as electronic health records. Using these data means we can include large swaths of the population in our studies, reducing bias and making our results more generalizable.
This does not mean that the data collected routinely are not without pitfalls. Missing data and data errors can cause problems for researchers. I think the take-home message here is that research is often a delicate balancing act.
What’s your favorite part of a study?
As a mental health data scientist, I use special statistical software to analyze data and produce results. You can spend weeks, months, or even years collecting or obtaining data and preparing it for analysis.
The absolute best part of the research process is when the data is finally ready, and you can hit the “go” button on the statistical software to run some statistical tests and see what the answer to your research question is. The long process of data collection ends with the click of a mouse…it’s quite exciting (although disappointing at times).
What’s the best thing about working in research?
For me, there are three “best things”: creativity, discovery and impact.
Although research involves a rigorous structure and methodology, it is also a very creative process. As researchers, we get to be creative around (a) the questions we ask, (b) how we answer them, and (c) how we present those results.
In terms of ‘discovery’, that’s essentially what research is – we seek to discover, and it’s incredibly exciting and rewarding.
As for “impact,” seeing the results of your research work lead to real change for people (eg, awareness, change in health policy) is what it’s really about.
Tell us about your research on the 2022 Scholars Program – sounds exciting!
I started my MQ Fellowship at the beginning of April this year and I am in the process of setting up all my studies. I plan to use routinely collected data (electronic health records in my case) to understand why people with severe mental illness are more likely to die from infectious diseases than people without severe mental illness.
I’ve always been interested in the links between mental and physical health, but most work in this area focuses on non-communicable aspects of physical health (eg, heart disease, diabetes). In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are now seeing how people with severe mental illness have had much worse COVID-19 outcomes being more likely to be hospitalized and die from the disease. It inspired me to think more broadly about the relationship between mental health and vulnerability to infection, which is a surprisingly understudied area.
When I found out that MQ was going to support this work, of course I was over the moon and felt really encouraged that MQ also recognized the importance of looking at infection risk in the context of mental health. I can’t wait to share my discoveries with you all!
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