Educator One

Mrs Razia Meer-Baloch - Training and Education Lead.

Razia qualified as a General Nurse in 1992 and worked within the surgical unit at Selly Oak Hospital Birmingham, whilst studying for a BSc in Health Sciences at Coventry University. She was appointed as the Midlands Co-ordinator for the UK Small Aneurysm Trial, at Leicester University.

Going on to design, implement and manage the first UK community screening programme, to identify patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm. Razia moved from the NHS into the commercial sector, working as a Clinical Trials Monitor for Clinpharm on secondment to Glaxowelcome. In 2010, she was appointed as the Quality Assurance Manager in the Primary Care Clinical Trials Unit, University of Birmingham. In 2016 she was appointed to lead the Quality Assurance team for the Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit.

Within this role, she was responsible for designing and implementing the Quality Management System; programme of training, monitoring and audit. During this time she successfully completed the certificate in Good Clinical Practice, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine. In September 2017, Razia was appointed as the Training and Education Lead for Clinical Trials for the Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit. Within this role, she is responsible for the review and strategic development of postgraduate programmes.

Alongside professional development courses for staff involved in clinical trials at all levels. Razia has been recognised as a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, through her commitment to professionalism in teaching and learning in higher education. Razia facilitates the NIHR national GCP programme, and is chair of the West Midlands Research Training Collaborative.

Educator Two

Dr Sara Brookes - Training and Education Lead.

On completion of a Master’s degree in 1993, Sara was appointed as a medical statistician within (what was formally known as) the School of Social & Community Medicine at the University of Bristol, UK. During her time at Bristol, Sara’s research focused on the conduct and methodological development of pragmatic randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in health care contexts, considering all stages of the RCT, from initial trial design and questionnaire development to the conduct and interpretation of analyses and dissemination.

In 2006, Sara completed a PhD which examined the use and abuse of subgroup analyses within randomised trials. Sara was a founding member of the Bristol Randomised Trials Collaboration (BRTC), and a co-applicant and joint theme lead within the ConDuCT-II Hub (Collaboration and Innovation for Difficult or Complex Randomised Controlled Trials In Invasive procedures), an MRC Hub for Trials Methodology Research.

Sara has always been committed and passionate towards teaching, finding ways to make complex study design and statistical issues accessible, understandable, relevant and enjoyable. In September 2017, Sara was appointed as the Training and Education Lead for Clinical Trials for the University of Birmingham’s Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit (CRCTU). Within this role, she is responsible for the review and strategic development of postgraduate programmes and professional development courses for staff involved in clinical trials at all levels.

Contributors

Professor Peter Brocklehurst – Director, Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit.

Dr. Peter Brocklehurst is Professor of Women’s Health, Director of the Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit and Co-Director of the NIHR Global Health Unit in Global Surgery, at the University of Birmingham. His expertise is in Randomised Controlled Trials and observational epidemiology. He has Chaired or been a member of several funding panels (including the DH Policy Research Programme Commissioning Board; NIHR HTA Commissioning Board; Wellbeing of Women Research Advisory Group; MRC Methodology Research Programme panel). He currently Chairs the UKCRC Pregnancy Research Review Group, and is a member of the CHM ad hoc expert group on optimising data on the safety of medicines used in pregnancy. He is an emeritus NIHR Senior Investigator and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Professor Pamela Kearns – Director, Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit

Professor Pam Kearns is Chair of Clinical Paediatric Oncology at the University of Birmingham and Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Oncology at Birmingham Women and Children’s Hospital. She was appointed Director of the University of Birmingham’s Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit (CRCTU) in 2012, where she leads the research strategy for UK’s largest cancer trials unit and has recently been appointed to the position of Director of the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences, University of Birmingham. In 2015, she was appointed as a Senior Clinical Advisor to Cancer Research UK. In January 2019, Professor Kearns became President of the European Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP Europe).

She also sits on the Boards for both the European consortium for Innovative Therapeutics for Children with Cancer (ITCC) and ACCELERATE; a multi-stakeholder Paediatric Oncology Platform to improve drug development for children and adolescents with cancer. Through her leading roles within the University of Birmingham, Cancer Research UK and SIOP-Europe, she provides national and international expert advice and guidance on research governance, regulatory affairs and research ethics in relation to clinical trials. She leads the ITCC’s European consortium of academic trial sponsors from 7 countries developing and delivering a platform for efficient and accelerated delivery of academic early phase childhood cancer trials in UK & across Europe.

Dr Kristian Brock – Principal Statistician

Professor Kristian Brock is a clinical trial statistician specialising in early phase methodology with a PhD in efficient clinical trial design. He oversees a portfolio of early phase trials in cancer and non-cancer, many of which use adaptive or complex or Bayesian methodology. He has authored several methodology papers, supervises post-graduate research on clinical trials, and leads an MSc module on early phase clinical trials.

Smitaa Patel - Senior Medical Statistician

Smitaa is a Senior Statistician with 15 years’ experience in the design and analysis of phase III clinical trials, currently working within the Neurosciences, Vascular Surgery and Primary Care portfolio. She plays a key role in the development of new trials, advising on trial design; grant applications; protocol and CRF development; study set up; recruitment and trial closure. Smitaa is responsible for final analysis and for writing papers for publication. This includes analysing and reporting the data at various meetings, both trial specific and at national meetings and conferences. Smitaa is a member of the Unit’s consultancy service providing advice and support to clinicians and researchers developing studies to be submitted for funding. She is a reviewer for the National Institute for Health Research, undertaking statistical reviews of grant applications submitted for funding; and she is involved in the review of articles submitted to journals.

Dr. Jon Bishop – Senior Medical Statistician

After studying Mathematics and Statistics (MSci Hons – First) at the University of St Andrews, Dr Bishop stayed on to complete a PhD in Statistical Ecology in 2008. After working in Primary Care at the University of Birmingham, he joined The Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit (BCTU) as a Statistician for the Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research Centre (SRMRC) in October 2012. He was promoted to Senior Statistician in January 2019. His research interests cover a wide range of clinical trials across trauma (a broad portfolio including burns, general and orthopaedic surgery, head injuries including TBI, ophthalmology, microbiology, military trauma, pre-hospital trauma, and shock), women’s health, and renal portfolios. He is a deputy module lead and teacher on the University of Birmingham’s MSc in Clinical Trials programme, regularly lectures on BCTU’s Research Methods Course, and also tutors on the MBChB programme.

Lisa Leighton – Senior Trial Manager

Lisa has worked in trial management at The Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit (BCTU) for 16 years and has experience working across a variety of trials. She works closely with trial funders, clinical research staff and governing bodies, in the planning and delivery of clinical trials to create and deliver robust trials producing reliable results. Lisa has strong working relationships with consultants, nurses and midwives throughout the UK, supporting them when needed during the trial. Lisa organised the annual PRE-term birth conference 2019 and leads on the Internal communications group within the unit.

Adam Devall – Senior Fellow and Trials Management Team Lead

Adam has over 10 years of experience in clinical trials, and his primary research focus is trials in early pregnancy care, with a particular focus on miscarriage, infertility and global women’s health. He has a split role within the organisation, working as a Trials Management Team Leader at the Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit and as a Senior Clinical Trials Fellow in the Tommy’s National Centre for Miscarriage Research, led by Prof Arri Coomarasamy.

Ben Watkins – Senior Trial Manager

Ben studied forensic science, achieving a first class Bsc (hons) before going on to work in an NHS R&D department as a research officer supporting phase III and IV clinical trials, observational, sample and questionnaire based studies from a range of disciplines. This involved the set-up, local review, co-ordination and invoicing of academic and commercial studies. Ben took up the position of Trial Co-coordinator at the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit (CRCTU) University of Birmingham in 2015, and was appointed as Senior Trial Manager in the Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit (BCTU) in 2018.

Marie Chadburn – Deputy Team Lead

Following her undergraduate and Ph.D. studies in molecular biology, biochemistry and molecular pharmacology, Marie left the laboratory to pursue a career in clinical research. This began as part of the research delivery team at a research-active cancer-specialist hospital, and continued in the roles of Trial Manager and Senior Trial Manager at Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit, specialising in the management of multi-centre clinical trials of people with Chronic Kidney Disease. Marie currently works as a Trial Management Deputy Team Leader, overseeing the development and management of a number of trials, and the line management of the associated trial management staff.

Lisa Holden – Senior Data Manager

After raising her family, Lisa returned to work helping her husband to run his Media and Communications Company. She was appointed as a Data Manager at the University of Birmingham and has since been promoted to a Senior Data Manager.

Maxwell Feltham – Quality Assurance Manager

In 2009, Max was awarded his Ph.D. in Neural and Visual Control of Human Movement at the Manchester Metropolitan University and the VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He then worked at Oxford Brookes University in the Movement Science Group to investigate the effect of exercise programmes on the cardiovascular system in people with multiple sclerosis and to develop a measurement tool to monitor gait patterns in people with a long-term neurodegenerative disease. Max joined the University of Birmingham in August 2011 as a Research Fellow in the Rehabilitation Team at Primary Care & Clinical Sciences, where he worked on a phase III cluster randomised controlled trial and a controlled cohort study.

Max became a Research Manager in Primary Care in June 2013, where he prepared, developed and led on patient recruitment for clinical trials in Primary Care. He was appointed as the Women’s Health Team Lead where he managed a team of trial management staff responsible for administration of a portfolio of clinical trial research projects. Max was appointed to the position of Quality Assurance Manager at The Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit (BCTU) in 2019 where he leads on the quality assurance processes of the unit.

Adrian Wilcockson – Deputy Programming Team lead

Shortly after graduating from Newcastle University with a degree in Mathematics and Statistics in 1995, Ade began his IT career as a Tech Support Analyst at a computer book wholesaler,involved in the maintenance and support of sales order systems. In September 2000 he moved to a software company developing asset management and procurement software. In mid-2003 he joined the Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit as a Senior Analyst Programmer, and has been working on bespoke clinical trial management applications, and the shared, common components and tools that the team utilises to create them. In 2016 Adrian took on the role of Deputy Programming Team Leader providing managerial assistance for the growing team

Jayne Wilson – Senior Systematic Reviewer

Jayne trained as a Registered General Nurse, at Nottingham School of Nursing, specialising post qualification in cardiothoracic intensive care nursing in the regional heart unit for the East Midlands in Leicester. Later she studied at Kings College London, for a BSc in Biology, specializing in Ecology and then at Leicester University for an MSc in Museum Studies specializing in DNA recovery from old biological specimens. In 1997 Jayne became involved in medical research, first collecting data from GP practices for a trial investigating guideline formats in angina and asthma (Department of General Practice, Leicester University) and a community study on depression in the elderly (Department of Epidemiology, Leicester University).

During this time Jayne gained experience in systematic reviewing which led to a post in 1999 as systematic reviewer on a project investigating Chlamydia trachomatis (Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Aberdeen University). In 2001, Jayne joined the West Midlands Health Technology Assessment Collaboration (WMHTAC) based in the Department of Public Health at the University of Birmingham.The first four years were spent working on reviews for customers such as NICE and the Department of Health, before becoming a reviewer and analyst for ARIF, where she undertook rapid literature assessments for customers within West Midlands PCTs.

In December 2010 Jayne became Senior Systematic Reviewer in the Cancer Research Clinical Trials Unit within the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences. She supervises a small team involved in systematic reviews on cancer treatments, and is holder of two Research for Patient Benefit Grants, one in paediatric brain tumours, the other in treatment for long term sequelae in head and neck cancer. She also has extensive teaching experience, previously as a tutor on the CASPb and a module co-ordinator on the MPH (HTA). Currently Jayne supports undergraduate and postgraduate students undertaking systematic reviews.

Adam Khan – Trial Manager

Adam graduated from the University of Birmingham with a BSc in Sport and Exercise Sciences and in 2014 was appointed as a Data Manager in the Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit (BCTU) and promoted to Senior Data Manager in 2017. This invaluable trials experience within the BCTU team enabled his promotion to Trial Manager in 2018.

Karen Turner - Cancer Research UK Senior Research Nurse

Whilst training as a Registered General Nurse at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, Karen developed a strong interest in Oncology nursing. This led her to The Royal Marsden Hospital in London where she gained vital oncology/haematology experience. During this time she completed a BSc (Hons) in Oncology Nursing and became a junior sister on a busy Oncology-Haematology ward. An opportunity became available within the Haematology Clinical Research Team at The Royal Marsden Hospital which led her to the continued strong interest in clinical research today. On arriving back in Birmingham in 2000, Karen worked within the Cancer Centre at the University Hospital Birmingham NHS Trust as the Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist before taking up her current post in April 2002 as Lead Clinical Research Nurse at the CRCTU. January 2007 saw this post develop into a Cancer Research UK Senior Nurse Post forging closer ties with the work of Cancer Research UK and the world of clinical research.

Kirandeep Sunner - Senior Trials Manager

Kirandeep joined the women’s health team 5 years ago having successfully carved out a career in the NHS and public sector as research scientist. She has worked as a Senior Trials Manager on the TABLET trial which was published in the Lancet, Prevelance,GEM3, PRE-EMPT and more recently the WIll trial.

CPD Contact

If you have any questions, please contact the CPD Academic Lead Linda Lefievre and MDS CPD Team.

Email: mdsstudentcpd@contacts.bham.ac.uk

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