• NIHR Research Professor and Professor of Medical Statistics and Trials Methodology at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience
• Interim Academic Director, King's Clinical Trials Unit
• Theme Lead for Trials, Genomics and Prediction in the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre
• Director, NIHR Research Support Service Hub at King's College London

Biography
Before joining King's in January 2018, I held a personal Chair at The University of Manchester as Professor of Medical Statistics and was Deputy Director of the Manchester Clinical Trials Unit. 

I studied at The University of Manchester for a BSc in Mathematics (2000-2003) and an MRC funded PhD studentship in Biostatistics (2003-2007) under the supervision of Prof Graham Dunn and Prof Andrew Pickles.  Following my PhD, I worked as a Research Associate in the Centre for Biostatistics, and was awarded personal fellowships as an MRC Career Development Award in Biostatistics (2009-2012) and an MRC Early Career Centenary Award (2012-2013), before being appointed as a Lecturer (2012), and promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2015 and Professor in 2016.  During my fellowships, I spent several months as a visiting researcher at the Department of Epidemiology and Department of Biostatistics at Harvard Chan School of Public Health.

My research interests are in clinical trials methodology, and developing statistical methods for efficacy and mechanisms evaluation using causal inference approaches. Our research group develop clinical trial designs which aim to answer questions about treatments more quickly and using fewer patients, and promote trial designs and associated analysis methods for precision medicine.  

The applications of these methods focus on randomised trials of complex interventions in mental health - a full list of projects is shown below.

Leadership roles

• Interim Academic Director of King's Clinical Trials Unit
• Theme lead for Trials, Genomics and Prediction in the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre.
• Director of the NIHR Research Support Service Hub based at King's College London.

Within the Department of Biostatistics and Health Informatics, I lead the Trials Methodology Research Group, and am the lead for the joint department and NIHR Maudsley BRC Methodology Patient and Public Involvement group. 

Externally, I am an elected member of Council and Trustee of the Royal Statistical Society, an investigator on the MRC-NIHR Trials Methodology Research Partnership, and co-lead of its Statistical Analysis Working Group. I am the founder of the European Causal Inference Meeting (Euro-CIM), and an Associate Editor of the journal Clinical Trials.

For the National Institute of Health Research, I hold a number of roles:

• Chair, Executive Committee of the NIHR Statistics Group
• Chair, NIHR Academy Member's Voices Group
• Member, NIHR Academy Strategy Group
• Research Professor representative board member, NIHR Strategy Board (2022)
• Member, NIHR Clinical Trials Unit Standing Advisory Committee (2019-2022).
• Member, NIHR Health Technology Assessment Clinical Evaluation and Trials Committee (2018-2021).

Methodology projects

Some of my current methodological projects are shown below:

• NIHR Research Professorship: Design and analysis of efficient trials in mental health
• MRC-NIHR Trials Methodology Research Partnership
• PROMoting THE USE of SWATs (PROMETHEUS)

Clinical projects

Some of my current clinical projects are shown below:

Psychosis and schizophrenia:

• The SlowMo trial (a digital therapy for people who fear harm from others)
• AVATAR therapy trial 
• Talk, Understand, Listen for In-Patient Settings (TULIPS)
• Active assistance for psychological therapy (ACTISSIST)
• Cognitive Approaches to Combatting Suicidality (CARMS)
• Feeling Safe: Overcoming Persecutory Delusions
• Managing Adolescent Psychosis (MAPS) trial
• Schizophrenia: Treatment Resistance and Therapeutic Advances (STRATA)
• Study of Trauma and Recovery (STAR trial)
• ATLANTIS: AnTiconvuLsant AugmeNtation Trial In Schizophrenia
• CLEAR: CLozapine in EARly psychosis
• STEP: Stratification and Treatment of Early Psychosis
• DEcision-making Capacity: Intervention Development & Evaluation in Schizophrenia-spectrum Disorder
• PUMA: Early Psychosis Multi-arm Multi-stage Platform Trial

Depression and self-harm:

• Multi-centre randomised controlled trial for postnatal depression in British South Asian women (ROSHNI-2)
• Multicenter Study to Evaluate the Clinical and Cost-effectiveness of a Culturally Adapted Therapy (C-MAP)
• WORSHIP III: Women Offenders Repeat Self-Harm Intervention Pragmatic Trial
• A Youth Culturally adapted Manual Assisted Psychological therapy (Y-CMAP) for adolescent Pakistani patients with a recent history of self-harm
• The Prevention Of Suicide Behaviour in Prison: Enhancing Access to Therapy (PROSPECT) Programme
• EQUiTy: Enhancing the quality of psychological interventions delivered by telephone
• STOP-D: A multi-centre randomised controlled trial of the clinical and cost-effectiveness of sertraline in preventing depression in adults following a traumatic brain injury

Autism:

• Paediatric Autism Communication Trial – Generalised (PACT-G)
• A Randomised Controlled Trial of PsychoEducation and Acceptance & Commitment Therapy for Parents of Children recently diagnosed with ASD (REACH-ASD)
• Communication-centred Parent-mediated treatment for Autism Spectrum Disorder in South Asia (COMPASS)

Other projects:

• BEACON: Best systemic treatments for adults with atopic eczema over the long term
• EDITION: Enhancing de-escalation techniques in adult acute and forensic units: development and evaluation of an evidence-based training intervention
• Psoriasis: Stratification to Optimise Relevant Therapy (PSORT)
• Autologous Stem cell Transplantation In refractory Crohn’s disease - Low Intensity Therapy Evaluation (ASTIC-LITE)
• Recovery Colleges Characterisation and Testing (RECOLLECT2)
• LonDownsPREVENT: a longitudinal study of the mechanisms of cerebral amyloid angiopathy and neurodegeneration in Down Syndrome to inform AD prevention
• CATFISH: An Evaluation of a New Water Fluoridation Scheme in Cumbria
• BalanceAct: Balance acceptance and commitment therapy for Long COVID

Teaching and Education

I teach on the MSc in Applied Statistical Modelling and Health Informatics, on the following modules:

• Multilevel and Longitudinal Modelling (module lead)
• Structural Equation Modelling with Stata
• Causal Modelling and Evaluation

I was Chair of the Assessment SubBoard for the MSc from 2019-2023.

I deliver lectures on clinical trials and intervention studies on various MSc courses and external short courses.

Supervision

I welcome enquiries for potential PhD students. If you are interested in studying for a PhD, please get in contact directly using email.