Working with HIV treatment programs in Nigeria, Edith Otalike often wondered how clinicians decided to stop one treatment and start another.
That curiosity sparked an academic journey that would take her from clinical pharmacy to epidemiology.
Now graduating from Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry with a PhD in epidemiology and biostatistics, Otalike is working to strengthen the quality of evidence used to guide health-care decisions.
Growing up in Kaura Namoda, Nigeria, Otalike stood out academically from an early age. She placed first in a state mathematics competition and earned a scholarship to a government boarding school. At 12, she left home to pursue an education her parents could not otherwise afford.
When she finished school in 2004, her academic results stood out again. Her school principal encouraged her to pursue university, advice that stayed with her.
“When I returned home, I refused to go to college, the normal trajectory for girls in my town, because I wanted to attend university,” she said.
It took three attempts to secure admission to university, but Otalike eventually earned a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy and a master’s degree in pharmacology at Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto.
While completing her master’s degree, Otalike worked as a clinical pharmacist, managing the pharmacy unit of an infectious disease centre for about two years.
“I saw patients and counselled them, but I also saw how research findings could change the treatments patients received,” she said. “I wanted to learn how to generate evidence that could improve care for the larger population.”
Her interest in the evidence behind treatment decisions led her to enrol in an online epidemiology course through the University of Washington, which introduced her to the research methods underpinning health-care decisions and inspired her to pursue graduate studies in the field.
In 2022, Otalike moved to Canada to pursue her PhD, leaving her three children in Nigeria with their father. They joined her in Canada one year later.
Otalike’s doctoral research focused on developing a critical appraisal tool for assessing the quality and reliability of research that combines individual patient data from multiple studies. This type of research synthesis, known as an individual participant data meta-analysis (IPD-MA), allows researchers to examine detailed patient information across studies to better understand how medical interventions affect different populations.
Improper implementation of the method, however, can undermine the trustworthiness of research findings. Without a consistent way to assess IPD-MAs’ quality, researchers may have difficulty determining how much confidence to place in their findings.
Under the supervision of Joel Gagnier, professor in epidemiology and biostatistics at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, Otalike developed a checklist to evaluate these studies. Created with input from international experts and tested in a real-world workflow, the checklist helps researchers assess whether studies have been appropriately planned, conducted, analyzed and interpreted.
The tool could be used to evaluate IPD-MAs examining health interventions across a range of diseases and conditions, such as the use of cannabidiol to manage chronic pain.
Looking back, Otalike is proud of achieving her academic goals – from a young student determined to attend university to a PhD graduate.
“Leaving home at 12 was a huge adjustment, but I learned to be independent, take more responsibility for myself, and do well in school,” she said. “Looking back, that experience helped prepare me to adapt to unfamiliar environments and led me to where I am today.”
Moving forward, she hopes to apply her expertise in evidence synthesis, informing health-care decisions in both Canada and Nigeria.
“My dream is still in the making,” she said. “I want to independently lead research that helps decision-makers understand which treatments and health interventions offer meaningful benefits and make the best use of available resources. My goal is to contribute to a stronger health system and more equitable access to effective care.”
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“Pursuing my PhD was an important step in my education, but it meant living apart from my children. I saw it as an investment in the future of both my family and myself, even though the separation was difficult.” – Edith Otalike, PhD’26
