Expert Comments on Available Evidence
The DEPRESSD Project
A Unique and Rigorous Data Platform for Depression Screening Research
Name: Meira Golberg
Email: mgolberg@uwaterloo.ca
Position: Biostatistician
Biography:
Meira joined the SPIN and DEPRESSD teams as a full-time Biostatistician in January 2024. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Biology at McGill University in 2021 prior to beginning her Master of Mathematics in Biostatistics at the University of Waterloo. During this time, Meira gained experience handling cognitive assessment data as a Research Assistant jointly with the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) and the University of Waterloo’s departments of Health Sciences and Mathematics. In this time, she worked as a Data Analyst for McMaster University’s Offord Centre for Child Studies, where she gained experience in survey methodology, longitudinal data analysis and associated problems of missing data. Meira graduated with her Master of Mathematics in December 2023.
Meira has worked on a wide range of projects focused on measuring predictors of cognition, physical and mental well-being, mental health and unmet healthcare needs. She has been involved in the data reporting and analysis of several projects taking place on the SPIN team, as well as in the development of more efficient protocols for extracting and organizing data. Her primary research interests include problems of missing longitudinal data and measurement bias, and she is leading projects aimed to addressing these issues in the context of both SPIN and DEPRESSD data.
Awards:
- Co-investigator, Operating Grant: Data Analysis Using Existing CDN Databases and Cohorts ($75,000) – CIHR; McMaster University, Faculty of Behavioural Neuroscience & Psychiatry. 2024.
- Graduate Research Studentship Award ($11,000) – University of Waterloo, Faculty of Health Sciences; Faculty of Statistics and Actuarial Sciences. 2023.
- Forbes Scholarship ($2000) – University of Waterloo, Department of Statistics and Actuarial Sciences. 2022-2023.
- Summer Undergraduate Research in Engineering Award ($6500) – NSERC; McGill University Department of Engineering. 2020.
- Tomilson Engagement Award for Mentoring ($3000) – McGill University. 2019-2021.
- Ruben Gruber Scholarship ($2000) – McGill University, Faculty of Science. 2019-2020.
- James McGill Award ($3000) – McGill University. 2018-2019.
Selected Presentations:
Golberg, Meira (2024): Using Multiple Imputation to Deal with Missing Data in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. Canadian Statistics Student Conference, St. John’s, NL, Canada.
Golberg, Meira (2024): Calibrating weights of major depression classification with reference standard misclassification: Protocol for a case study of individual patient data meta-analysis with the PHQ-9. McGill Statistics Research and Career Day, Montreal, QC, Canada.