Goal Attainment Scaling in Clinical Research and Practice: Insights from Experts

Lynne Turner-Stokes, Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine, King’s College London

Professor Lynne Turner-Stokes, the Northwick Park Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at King’s College London, has been a driving force in rehabilitation medicine since 2001. She has championed the implementation of GAS in routine clinical practice for the last 20 years introducing tools such as the GAS Light and GASeous to make GAS easier for clinicians to use. She established academic rehabilitation at King’s College London and leads the Regional Hyper-acute Rehabilitation Unit (RHRU) at Northwick Park Hospital, renowned for specialized care in severe complex disabilities, especially acquired brain injuries.

As the head of the UK Rehabilitation Outcomes Collaborative (UKROC), Turner-Stokes oversees the national clinical registry for specialist rehabilitation in the UK. She has significantly influenced national rehabilitation policy through her roles in key committees, shaping initiatives like the National Service Framework for Long-Term Conditions and NHS England Clinical Reference Group for Specialised Rehabilitation. Professor Turner-Stokes serves as Chief Investigator for the Upper Limb International Spasticity (ULIS) program, conducting impactful international studies. With over 200 publications, her research focuses on Health Services Research, utilizing methodologies like systematic reviews and large dataset analyses. She pioneers techniques for patient-level costing and evaluates cost efficiency in complex disability cases. Turner-Stokes also contributes to the academic community through editorial roles in prestigious journals, cementing her position as a leading figure in rehabilitation medicine.

Chère Chapman, CEO, Ardea Outcomes

Chère Chapman started her career as a patient-centered outcomes researcher at Dalhousie University, where she published her first quality of life paper with her Biology Honors supervisor, Dr Rockwood. After a year in Japan, Chère returned to Canada to get her Master’s in Health Science in Community Health and Epidemiology from the University of Toronto. There, she developed a passion for HIV research, which led her to Singapore as a staff epidemiologist at the Communicable Disease Centre. From there, she went to the UK to do her MBA at the London Business School, immersing herself in social entrepreneurship and purpose-led business. Chère returned to Asia to establish a consultancy in Singapore and Vietnam, developing multi-stakeholder partnerships with international NGOs and Fortune 100 companies. Chère negotiated complex projects from Papua New Guinea to India to Bangladesh for organizations such as CARE International, Visa, and The Clinton Foundation. Chère’s East Coast Canadian roots eventually pulled her back to Halifax, where she combined her passions for patient-centered research and purpose-led business to co-found Ardea Outcomes with her mentor, Dr. Rockwood. Chère is a sought-after board member, investor, and mentor in the start-up ecosystem in Atlantic Canada.

Gunes Sevinc, Research Manager, Ardea Outcomes

Gunes Sevinc has a multidisciplinary background with training and research experience in basic and clinical sciences. After obtaining her BSc degree in Psychology and her MSc degree in Mental Health Sciences, she pursued a career in clinical research as a psychologist, conducting in-person and remote assessments. She then earned her PhD degree in Neuroscience from Istanbul University. During her PhD, she had a visiting fellowship at Cornell University, where she completed her dissertation on neural networks associated with social cognition. She continued her career with a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital & Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry. During her fellowship, she utilized clinical trial methodology to examine mindfulness training-dependent cognition and neural function changes. Gunes joined Ardea Outcomes as a Research Manager, leading research operations and internal research projects in personalized endpoints, particularly in goal attainment scaling.