Taryn Young, S. Africa

Director of the Centre for Evidence-based Health Care and coordinator of the MSc in Clinical Epidemiology at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University and consultant to the South African Cochrane Centre, she is an epidemiologist with a specialist degree in Public health and considerable expertise in the field of evidence-based health care. She coordinates international collaborative projects which facilitate the use of best evidence in healthcare policy and practice and currently leads the coordination of the Effective Health Care Research Consortium in the African region. This Consortium is an International Group including partners from the United Kingdom, India, China and Africa. She works with the International Cochrane Collaboration and has conducted many systematic reviews and provided intensive training, mentorship and editorial support to authors of Cochrane and other systematic reviews. She supports the work of the South African Cochrane Centre by supporting the development and implementation of training, mentoring and support for Cochrane authors from 25 countries in Sub Saharan Africa. Furthermore, she is a editor with both the Cochrane Sexually Transmitted Infections Group based in South America) and the Cochrane Occupational Health Group based in Sweden) and has served on the Advisory Committee of the Cochrane Public Health Group who has a base in Australia). At the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, she coordinates the Masters in Clinical Epidemiology and also play a key role in the curriculum development, implementation and evaluation of training programmes for under- and postgraduate students in public health and epidemiology, evidence-based healthcare and research synthesis. Within MSc in Clinical Epidemiology she has lead the development of blended teaching modules with incorporate the use of emerging technologies thus combining e-learning and face:face contact sessions.. Nationally and in the African region she teaches evidence-based healthcare and the principles of research synthesis. Within the African region she has offered training in Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Ethiopia. She has supervised nine students who have completed their masters degrees and is currently supervising 4 MSc in Clinical Epidemiology students and 1 PhD student. She has also served as an external examiner for postgraduate Epidemiology modules offered at other South African Academic institutions and masters dissertations. She has authored 1 book chapter, 19 peer reviewed publications, and 22 scientific letters. She provides a regular feature on Evidence based Health care to the International Journal of Epidemiology and Current Allergy and Immunology.