Max Mischkewitz graduated from medical school at Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin in 2021 and has been working as a research fellow at Schlosspark Klinik, University Medicine Berlin since 2016. Currently, he also works on his MD thesis covering a neuropaediatric topic. As a researcher, Max is also co-affiliated with Section for Biostatistics and Evidence-Based Research, the Parker Institute - working on clinical epidemiological issues such as (i) setting the right research priorities, (ii) Encourage use of robust research designs, conduct and analysis, (iii) Make all information on research methods and findings accessible, (iv) Encourage the involvement of relevant stakeholders (incl. patient partners), and finally to make sure (v) Reports of research are complete and usable (independent of the findings).
Together with colleagues at Section for Biostatistics and Evidence-Based Research, Max was introduced to the ‘Outcome Measures in Rheumatology’ (OMERACT) initiative where he conducts his research investigating Outcome Influencing Contextual Factors in rheumatological studies.
Incomplete and inadequate reporting of research hampers the assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the studies reported in the medical literature. Observational research comprises several study designs and many topic areas. We want to provide guidance on how to report possible (outcome influencing) contextual factors in longitudinal observational studies. The OMERACT Contextual Factor Working Group defines Outcome Influencing Contextual Factors (OI-CFs) as prognostic factors of relevance to longitudinal observational studies (LOS) and, hence, potential confounders. The work stream lead by Max, aims at selecting these potential confounders that should potentially be collected in all studies to improve predictions and interpretation of cohort study results in rheumatology.