Dr. Thomas Atkinson is a trained psychometrician and outcomes researcher with expertise in quantitative and qualitative methodology. He serves as the Head of the MSKCC Behavioral Research Methods Core Facilities. Dr. Atkinson’s current line of independent research focuses on the exploration of the psychometric properties of existing patient reported outcomes (PRO) measures for the purposes of evaluating their use for inclusion in clinical trials and regulatory review. Dr. Atkinson has recently published two papers on the validity of pain measures with respect to recommendations put forth by the Food and Drug Administration, and has presented this work at multiple international conferences. As a Guest Worker at the FDA over the past two years, he has coauthored presentations with FDA colleagues on their perspectives regarding the measurement of pain palliation.