Dentist turned research methodologist. I write R packages for evidence synthesis, build meta-research pipelines that audit how open science really is, and ship interactive tools on GNU/Linux.
Fig. 1. My work as a network meta-analysis. Node area ∝ papers + repos on a topic; edge width ∝ co-occurrence. Fitted live from this site's data. Drag a node.
Press ` for a real shell, ? for keys, 1…8 to jump.
~$ cat README.md
About
# whoami
I trained as a dentist in Tehran, practiced as a community dentist in Kurdistan, and then followed the questions upstream: how do we know a treatment works, and can we trust the papers that say so? That took me to an MSc in Health Research Methodology at McMaster and into evidence synthesis for good.
Today I run pairwise and network meta-analyses and population-adjusted indirect treatment comparisons (MAIC, STC, ML-NMR) as a Research Associate in Comparative Effectiveness at Cytel. Outside the day job I turn methods into software: CRAN packages, open textbooks, and browser tools that anyone can rerun and audit.
I have used GNU/Linux since 2010, translated A Byte of Python into Persian in 2009, and have served Cochrane for most of a decade, from Cochrane Iran to the Cochrane Council.
## current focus
Population-adjusted indirect treatment comparisons and disconnected evidence networks
Target trial emulation and causal inference for real-world evidence
Research integrity tooling: retractions, citations, DOIs, and transparency indicators
Interactive teaching tools for anatomy, mathematics, and statistics
~/r-pkgs$ Rscript -e 'library(help = "choxos")'
R packages
On CRAN, documented with pkgdown, and tested. Indirect comparisons, responder analysis, and the plumbing of research integrity.
Public repositories I authored (stubs without a README are skipped), freshest first. Filter by language or grep the descriptions and topics.
~/papers$ SELECT * FROM openalex WHERE author = 'A5075399321';
Publications
Refreshed from OpenAlex. Consortium papers (the Global Burden of Disease collaborations) are counted too, which is why the citations run high. Also on Google Scholar and ORCID.
5,225citations
18h-index
23i10-index
69papers & preprints
27first-authored
papers per year · click a bar to filter
2026
Assessing the impact of missingness in treatment effect modifiers on bias in anchored and unanchored MAIC
ISPOR 2026 · Value in Health abstract MSR249
2025
Retractions and Democracy Index scores across 167 countries
10th International Congress on Peer Review and Scientific Publication
2024
Research transparency in 59 fields of medical and health sciences
2nd Global Evidence Summit, Prague
2024
COVID-19-related research data availability and quality according to the FAIR principles
2nd Global Evidence Summit, Prague
2024
Diversity in Cochrane Reviews authorship
2nd Global Evidence Summit, Prague
2023
Transparency of COVID-19-related research
27th Cochrane Colloquium, London · HEI Research Day, McMaster
2022
Open science practices in oral health research: implications and importance
5th Congress of the Iranian Association of Community Oral Health
2019
Frequency and risk of bias of randomized controlled trials included in Cochrane Oral Health systematic reviews
Persian, with Sasan Namirian and Nava Ajdari · Narmafzar, Tehran
2009
A Byte of Python
Persian translation · Narmafzar, Tehran
~/cv$ git log --graph --all --date=short
Resume
Three branches that keep merging: workserviceeducation. prints a clean copy.
a7c3f10(HEAD -> work)2024-04..HEAD
Research Associate, Comparative Effectiveness
Cytel Inc. · remote
Pairwise and network meta-analyses and indirect treatment comparisons, including anchored and unanchored MAIC and STC and multilevel network meta-regression. Methods consulting for clients.
Led systematic reviews and network meta-analyses in pain and migraine, and methodological research on meta-analytic estimation.
91fa2c72022-09..2024-04
Teaching Assistant
McMaster University · Hamilton
Population and Public Health Epidemiology (PUBHLTH 701), Strategic Writing for Health Professionals (HM 732), Epidemiology (LIFESCI 3G03), Introduction to Data Science (LIFESCI 3LA3).
3b7e0a42021-10..2022-08
General Dental Practitioner
Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences · Seqiz
Named top community dentist in the network after coverage rose 22% and patient satisfaction rose 34%.
d2e6c93(svc)2021-09..HEAD
Associate Editor
BioMed Central · BMC Oral Health, BMC Research Notes
Handled more than 15 manuscripts through to publication.
7f0b5aa2021-05..2023-12
Representative for the Early Career Professionals Network
Cochrane Council · global
Brought the priorities of early career researchers, especially from low and middle income countries, into Cochrane's governance.
e8a41d62020-07..2021-09
Research Assistant
Deputy of Research and Technology, Ministry of Health and Medical Education · Tehran
Designed and ran the oral health analysis of the PERSIAN cohort, the country's largest longitudinal dataset, to inform national policy.
60c2f192019-07..HEAD
Steering Group Member and Vice-chair
Cochrane Early Career Professionals Network · global
Started Cochrane's first fully automated diversity research, mapping country, region, language, and gender across review authorship.
2ad9e702019-06..2021-09
Research Assistant
Non-Communicable Diseases Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences
Quality of Care Index studies from the Global Burden of Disease, a national special care dentistry guideline, and the 2021 STEPS country report for Iran.
b61e4c2(tag: v1.0-dds)2012-09..2019-06
Doctor of Dental Surgery
Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences · Tehran
Selected Student of the University (2018). Organized TEDxSBMU and TEDMEDLive SBMU. Founded Dahaan, a knowledge translation project for dental evidence.
f3d07b82018-09..2021-08
Steering Group Member and Translation Manager
Cochrane Iran · Tehran
Translated review summaries, books, news, and podcasts into Persian; ran the website and social channels.
0c1a9d52018-02..2022-08
Translator
Informed Health Choices Network · Oslo
Translated The Health Choices book and the That's a Claim pamphlets into Persian and Kurdish; planned a trial of critical thinking about health claims in Iranian schools.
DESCRIPTION
Package: ahmad
Title: Dentist Turned Research Methodologist
and R Developer
Version: 2026.9.0
Authors@R: person("Ahmad", "Sofi-Mahmudi",
role = c("aut", "cre"),
comment = c(ORCID = "0000-0001-6829-0823"))
Depends: R (advanced), Stan
Imports: Python, Julia, Stata, SPSS, SAS
Suggests: GNU/Linux, Bash, Zsh, LaTeX,
Quarto, R Markdown, Git, Tableau
Methods: pairwise MA, NMA, cNMA, MAIC,
STC, ML-NMR, ML-UMR, TTE, GRADE
Language: ku, fa (native); en (C1);
fr (A2)
License: CC BY 4.0
NEWS.md
# awards
2021 Lifetime Member, International Society for Evolution, Medicine & Public Health
2019 Cochrane 30 Under 30
2017 First-ranked gold medalist, National Health System Management Olympiad, Iran
2012 Ranked 206th of 449,955 (top 0.05%) in Iran's national university entrance exam
2012 Ranked 57th of 10,908 (top 0.5%) in the foreign languages entrance exam
2010 Lifetime Member, Ubuntu GNU/Linux Iranian LoCo Team