Suepattra May-Slater, Principal Scientist at PRECISIONheor began her career in healthcare research over 20 years ago as a program assistant for an NIH funded Specialized Program of Research Excellence in ovarian cancer at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. The multidisciplinary program was focused on “bench to bedside” translational research, involving molecular biologists, immunologists and public health scientists, seeking to identify ways to detect ovarian cancer early, and improving therapies for patients. A novel aspect of the program was inclusion of a patient advocacy arm – one of the first of its kind in the country in ovarian cancer – to ensure the patient perspective was infused throughout the work, but a challenge given that patients and researchers, while sharing the same goals – may not always speak the same language.
This formative experience helped shape a longstanding interest to develop, implement, and optimize strategies for collaborating with patient stakeholders and ensuring patient centric initiatives in carrying out health economics and outcomes research across therapeutic areas. As a Master in Public Health student concentrating on Health Services Research at the University of Washington, Dr. May-Slater conducted field research in Senegal West Africa to understand how to conduct screening for and educate women about breast cancer in a lower income country lacking the infrastructure we are accustomed to in wealthier nations. Dr. May-Slater continued her graduate studies in the joint program in Medical Anthropology at the University of California Berkeley and San Francisco, honing her expertise in qualitative data collection methods and analyses, and continuing to investigate how patients experience illness and healthcare.
At Precision, Dr. May-Slater conducts a range of primary data collection projects incorporating mixed-methods across a number of therapeutic areas and topics ranging from oncology to treatment decision making, patient engagement, social determinants of health, patient reported outcomes, and implementation sciences approaches to adoption and uptake of therapeutic interventions. Her work at Precision includes conducting focus groups and developing surveys to investigate clinician and patient preferences for treatment, understanding the context in which decisions are made, as well as designing and conducting in-depth interviews with decision makers across the health policy and care delivery landscape, within the US and globally.
Dr. May-Slater’s research has been published in leading medical journals and presented at major conferences including Health Affairs, Medical Decision Making, ASCO, and ISPOR. She is a co-author on 20 peer-reviewed publications and over 50 conference presentations, including most recently a publication in Medical Decision Making Policy and Practice presenting findings from a mixed methods study investigating the value of progression free survival in metastatic breast cancer:
MacEwan, J. P., Doctor, J., Mulligan, K., May, S. G., Batt, K., Zacker, C., Lakdawalla, D., & Goldman, D. (2019). The Value of Progression-Free Survival in Metastatic Breast Cancer: Results From a Survey of Patients and Providers. MDM policy & practice, 4(1), 2381468319855386. https://doi.org/10.1177/2381468319855386
Dr. May-Slater holds a PhD from the Joint Program in Medical Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley & San Francisco; and from the University of Washington earned both an MPH in Health Services and a BA in International Studies. Outside of work, Suepattra enjoys trying out new recipes in the kitchen, reading historical fiction, occasionally riding her Peloton and planning vacations with her husband and their twin girls.