International Advisory Board

Shaun is a health services researcher interested in efficient trial design, particularly around recruitment and retention and the effective presentation of research evidence. He leads an initiative called Trial Forge (http://www.trialforge.org) that aims to be more systematic about how we generate and use research evidence in making trial design, conduct, analysis and reporting decisions.

Alan Montgomery is Professor of Medical Statistics and Clinical Trials, and Director of the Nottingham Clinical Trials Unit, University of Nottingham. Alan works collaboratively to design, conduct, analyse and report large, multicentre randomised trials across a wide range of clinical areas and settings, and in methodological research to increase the evidence base for the efficient conduct of such trials.

Dr. David Moher is a senior scientist, clinical epidemiology program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, where he directs the centre for journalology (publication science) (http://www.ohri.ca/journalology/ ). Dr. Moher is also a Professor, School of Epidemiology and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa. Dr. Moher holds an MSc in epidemiology and PhD in clinical epidemiology and biostatistics. Dr. Moher is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. Dr. Moher’s research program is focused on Open Science and meta-research.

Derick Mitchell, PhD. is the Chief Executive of the Irish Platform for Patient Organisations, Science and Industry (IPPOSI – www.ipposi.ie). IPPOSI is a patient-led organisation that works with patients, government, industry, science and academia to put patients at the heart of health innovation. Derick has a background in research, strategy and advocacy from over 12 years’ experience spanning a number of leadership roles in research and multi-stakeholder engagement in Ireland and at the EU-level. At an international level, Derick is an elected board member of the European Patients Academy (EUPATI) Foundation, a global initiative which is training patients to become involved in the medicines R&D process, and has spread the IPPOSI public-private partnership model to over 20 countries. Derick is  chairperson of the European patient representative round-table of ISPOR – the Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research; a Patient Advisor to the OECD Patient-Reported Indicator Survey (PaRiS) initiative as well as a founding member of the European Patients’ Forum-led DataSavesLives.eu initiative. In Ireland, Derick serves on the advisory boards and steering committees of a number of health-related initiatives including Health Innovation Hub Ireland, , EHealth Ireland, a number of HIQA Advisory committees, as well as the Medical & Life Sciences Committee of the Royal Irish Academy. Derick graduated with a BSc. (Hons) in Biotechnology from NUI Galway (2000) followed by a PhD in Molecular Medicine from University College Dublin (2004). Outside of IPPOSI, Derick spends his free time attempting to influence his two daughters.

Prof Katie Gillies research interests focus on the design and delivery of participant centred trials: from point of initial contact through to feeding back results to individuals. She leads research in the application of behavioural science to trials methodology. For example, framing problems of recruitment and retention as behaviours and exploring the opportunities to improve these aspects through the design of participant centred, theoretically informed, interventions. This work is multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder and involves using mixed methods approaches to develop, evaluate and implement interventions to support decision making in this context.

Prof Matthias Briel is a physician and clinical epidemiologist with a strong interest in clinical trial methodology and meta-epidemiological research. He is the founder and head of the Meta-Research Center Basel, Department of Clinical Research, University Hospital Basel, Switzerland, and an adjunct faculty member at the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact, McMaster University, Canada. Matthias leads the Swiss clinical Trials Empirical Assessment & Methods (STEAM) Working Group with the aim to coordinate Swiss meta-research projects and tool development to make the planning and conduct of clinical trials more efficient and evidence-based.

Kerry Hood is Professor of Trials and the Director of the UKCRC Registered Centre for Trials Research at Cardiff University. She is a Senior Research Leader and mentor for Health and Care Research Wales. Kerry’s specific methodological research interests are in trial design, outcome measurement and research inclusion with a particular focus on complex trials, whilst the topic areas she mainly focuses on are primary care, infections and learning disabilities. Kerry collaborates widely across the UK and Europe on research studies from a broad range of funders including NIHR, UKRI, HCRW, EU and industry. She has over 320 peer reviewed research publications and currently holds £35M of research grants. She is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society and the Higher Education Academy and a member of the Society for Academic Primary Care. Kerry co-leads the Trial Conduct Working Group of the MRC-NIHR Trial Methodology Research Partnership with Dr. Katie Gillies (University of Aberdeen).

Professor Allison Tong is a Principal Research Fellow at the Sydney School of Public Health, The University of Sydney. She holds an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator Award and a Robinson Fellowship. She has experience in patient-centred outcomes research in chronic disease. Allison has an interest in patient involvement in research, including in the context of research priority setting, the development of core outcomes for research, and in the co-production of clinical trials. She co-founded and is on the Executive Committee of the global Standardised Outcomes in Nephrology (SONG) Initiative, which aims to establish consensus-based core outcomes across the spectrum of chronic kidney disease (www.songinitiative.org).

Paula Williamson is Professor of Biostatistics. She is Director of the MRC North West Hub for Trials Methodology Research (HTMR), Director of the Clinical Trials Research Centre (CTRC), and Head of the Department of Biostatistics at the University of Liverpool. Paula chairs the University of Liverpool’s Health and Biomedical Informatics Group and is a member of the Farr Institute through HeRC North. Paula co-founded and has led the COMET (Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials) Initiative since 2010. She was appointed as an NIHR Senior Investigator in 2014, gave the Bradford Hill Lecture in 2017, and is current Chair of the MRC HTMR Network.