Milena Anatchkova

PhD, Senior Research Leader, Patient-Centered Research

Milena has over 15 years’ experience in the design, analysis, and interpretation of studies in health outcomes research with a focus on the development of patient-reported outcome measures, using both classical test theory and item response theory. Her responsibilities include the direction, design, management, and reporting of projects related to the development, validation, and interpretation of clinical outcomes measures in support of successful patient-centered drug development strategy. She has training in both qualitative and quantitative methods and has worked in multiple therapeutic areas, including asthma, chronic pain, diabetes, depression, cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, HIV, obesity, osteoarthritis, dermatology, rare disease, and multi-morbidity.

Milena has special interest in the impact of health states on role participation and social functioning. Her research prior to joining Evidera has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Patient Centered Outcomes Institute, the PhRMA Foundation, and Jacob’s Foundation. Additionally, the quality of her work has been recognized in award by several professional organizations such as the Society of Behavioral Medicine and the International Society for Quality of Life Research.

Prior to joining Evidera, Milena was a faculty member of the department of quantitative health sciences at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where she now serves as an affiliate faculty. Milena also gained consulting experience during her years as a research scientist at QualityMetric Inc., where she led both consulting projects and exploratory research supported through the Small Business Innovation Research program of the National Institutes of Health. Her publications have appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as Quality of Life Research, Circulation, Clinical Trials, Journal of Pain, Medical Care, American Journal of Medicine, and Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, among others.

Milena received her PhD in behavioral science from the University of Rhode Island and her MA degree in organizational psychology from Sofia University.