Deb Collyar

Deb helps HLM run its Clearly Communicating Clinical Trials program. She's created clinical trial summaries with patient communities in mind for decades. Deb believes that medical research can make much more progress, and that professionals need to be clear about patient needs in order to produce relevant outcomes for people. Deb became a patient advocate soon after her first cancer diagnosis at age 32, after becoming frustrated with the glacial pace of research and the lack of public information. This led her to use her professional skills to launch the global Patient Advocates In Research (PAIR) communications network, where people from diverse disease groups learn how to bring reality into translational and clinical research.

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Deb volunteers with many associations and organizations, such as the Drug Information Association, and is an author and speaker. She also helps companies develop effective patient engagement, and serves on many grants, advisory boards, as faculty at the Vail Methods in Clinical Research Workshop, and often presents the patient perspective at professional meetings. She and her husband have survived 3+ cancers, and they work with multiple communities and patients.