Patrick Reidy

What attracted you to the health metrics field?

During college, I studied biology and learned quantitative methods to answer questions with biological applications. In my junior year, I started working in a lab and became immersed in one specific subject. However, it was often hard to see the broader impact of our work. The health metrics field seemed like a great way to apply the quantitative skills I had learned to important questions that affect people, and IHME seemed like the right place to make that happen.

What work are you doing at IHME?

I am working on the forecasting project at IHME. Our goal is to predict the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) into the future using different modeling techniques. We will be using all aspects of the GBD, including covariates and risk factors, to make our predictions. Ultimately, we hope to have disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) predicted into the future and to have appropriate uncertainty captured in our forecasts.

How do you think your experience at IHME impact your future work?

It is exciting to be part of a project as extensive as the GBD. The ways that all of the different sub-projects fit together and the knowledge and insight required to piece everything together is fascinating. I’m hoping that the skills I learn here will allow me to tackle other large-scale problems in health in the future.