June 15, 2016
Earlier this week, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a study by Dr. Rohan Khera, graduating resident, and Dr. Siddharth Singh, a former resident at the University of Iowa and current postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Diego. They performed a rigorous comparison of five FDA-approved obesity drugs and ranked their effectiveness. Their results have generated no small amount of attention from the Los Angeles Times and LiveScience. The Department asked Dr. Khera for a little more information about this important study and the impressive publication.
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How did you become involved in this study? What was your role?
I had been interested in the question for a while, and put the project together with Dr. Singh who also has an interest in studying obesity and had some experience with conducting studies of this nature. I served as the co-Principal investigator and was involved at every step. Sid (Dr. Singh) helped contact other co-investigators to develop a group with diverse expertise. With another investigator, I performed a systematic review of the literature, and then identified candidate studies. We then developed a database of study outcomes. I collaborated with statistical experts at Mayo Clinic and performed components of the analysis. I wrote the first draft of the manuscript and was responsible for subsequent revisions.