I am a senior lecturer in medical statistics at the University of Edinburgh (UoE) with expertise in medical education research, including the statistical learning needs of health professionals, and interdisciplinary research. During my time at the UoE, I have developed a wealth of experience in providing statistical advice to senior medical students and their supervisors in the design and conduct of clinical research, including in relation to best choice of statistical procedures, although I also have expertise in mixed methods research. At the UoE, I serve as a course leader for the Year 3 honours Research Skills in Health Sciences course for undergraduate medical students and lead the delivery and assessment of statistical learning during semester 1 of the Year 2 MBChB module Research and Evidence-Based Medicine. With a strong background in mathematics and an appreciation of the impact of statistical misconceptions on clinical decision making, I am committed to striking the balance between exercising empathy in understanding learner needs based on varied prior learning experiences in statistics and avoiding oversimplification of statistics at the expense of patient safety in clinical decision-making. To support my development as a leader, I completed the Edinburgh Leader Programme this year, which has encouraged me to excercise my personal values of authenticity and integrity as leadership priorities when faced with political challenges in academia.

I also have extensive supervisory experience, including at undergraduate, postgraduate internship, MSc and PhD levels, which has extended, on an international scale, to MSc supervision by distance learning from Uganda and collaborative supervision at PhD level with the University of South Australia.

At an external level I promote good practice in statistics education and research through my roles as Vice Chair of the Teaching Statistics Section of the RSS and as a Lead for the RoSE (Researchers of Statistics Education) Network SIG, Research and Scholarship. 

In May 2024, I published the edited book “A Medical Educator's Guide to Thinking Critically about Randomised Controlled Trials: Deconstructing the "Gold Standard"
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-25859-6 . One of my primary aims in publishing this book has been “to inspire and equip educators to train their students to take a more critical approach to individual RCTs [randomised controlled trials] as a source of evidence for clinical effectiveness, without skipping the statistical elements.”

Undergraduate

Within the MBChB¹ curriculum:

Internal

• Lecturer for MBChB Year 2 Research and Evidence-Based Medicine Module (2021 - )
• Statistics lead and Course Organiser for MBChB Year 3 BMedSci programme (2018 - )
• Member of the Board of Examiners for the MBChB Year 3 BMedSci programme (2018 - )
• Author of statistics open access WordPress site StatsforMedics (2016 - )
• Member of the Year 4 SSC (Student-Selected Components) Exam Sub-Board (2005 - 2015)
• Contributor to the Year 4 OSCA (Online System for Clinical Assessment): 2005 – 2015
• Director of Studies/Personal Tutor for undergraduate medical students from Years 1 – 5 (September 2006 - August 2015); Early Year Guide for Year 1 undergraduate medical students (September 2022 - June 2023)
• Marker for undergraduate MBChB course Epidemiology and Statistics (2004-2012)
• Occasional marker for Student Selected Component projects
• Author of one-to-one statistics appointments system and supporting online resources for students engaged in dissertation research (2004 - )

External

External Examiner for the BMedSci programme, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton (October 2012 - August 2016)                                                                                                                    

Undergraduate Project Research Supervision

• Year 3 BMedSci honours project on use and awareness of cardiovascular risk prediction scales among UK doctors (Shazia Mohammed, Nov 2023 - April 2024)
  
• Year 2 Student-Selected Component Project Cardiovascular health measures at our
  fingertips: Improving the efficiency of clinical decision making through a futuristic wiki [continuation of previous project] (Holly A Steiger, Eleanor O Kerr, Natasha K Longhurst, Kathryn Hill, Salim Hanafi and Thomas Zhang (Oct 2021 - May 2022)
• Peer-Assisted Learning SSC5b project in enhancing student learning experiences through review of the WordPress site StatsforMedics. (Kyle Bennett, Oct 2016 - April 2017)
• A questionnaire-based survey of undergraduate medical assessments in the UK (Lim Ming Han, October 2013 - January 2014)
• Cardiovascular health measurement scales at our finger-tips: improving the efficiency of clinical decision making through a futuristic Wiki (Liu Zhaobo, summer 2012, funded by Wellcome trust)
• What should medical educators tell undergraduate medical students about the role of alternative medicine in cancer therapy? - A critical review of published research (Mark Hannen, summer 2013, funded by University of Edinburgh CMVM²)
• A questionnaire-based survey of undergraduate medical assessments in the UK (Lim Ming Han, October 2013 - January 2014)

1. At the University of Edinburgh, successful completion of the undergraduate medical degree programme leads to conferment of the professional award of MBChB (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery/Chirurgery).
2. 'CMVM denotes 'College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine'.

Postgraduate

Internal

• Course Organiser for the  Usher Institute Master of Public Health course Introduction to Systematic Reviews (2018 - 2020)
• Personal tutor for students enrolled on Usher Institute Master of Public Health programme (October 2016 - )
• Tutor on the international MSc/Dip/Cert Course in Clinical Management of Pain (2006, 2007)
  
• Dissertation marker for Masters students on MSc in Public Health programme (2005, 2006, 2018)

External 

• Module Organiser and Lecturer for the Statistics and Clinical Epidemiology module of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh Scottish Oncology Course for SpRs (2005, 2006). One of the venues for this course was the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.

Postgraduate research project supervision

• Statistical modelling project to investigate associations between UK medical school applicant qualifications in the mathematical sciences and choice of medical school (Zhiyu Chen, MSc Operational Research with risk, School of Mathematics, summer 2024)
• Mathematical modelling and Python coding project for robust quantification and assessment of variation in entry requirements in the mathematical sciences across UK medical schools during 2016 - 2023  (Ricardo Valencia Albornoz, April – July 2024, Digital Research Ambassador scheme project)
  
• Cardiovascular health measurement scales at our fingertips: improving the efficiency of clinical decision making through a futuristic Wiki (Mingxian Yang, MSc Artificial Intelligence, Merit, 2020)
• The Relationships between Periodontal Disease and Oral Health-Related Quality of Life in the Urban Older Population in Indonesia (Marisza Hijryana, PhD, 2020)
• What should be taught to undergraduate medical students about the efficacy of alternative medicine in cancer therapy? A systematic review update. (Katie Hall, MSc Public Health, 2018)
• The frequency of use of various types of reliability coefficients within medical education journals: A systematic review (Sijia Liu, MSc Statistics and Operational Research, summer 2015)
• Comparison of the benefits of Ropinirole or Pramipexole versus those of Entacapone in the management of patients on Levodopa therapy with later intermediate stage Parkinson's disease: A systematic review (Dr Derek Kayanja, MSc Internal Medicine (ODL programme), Distinction, 2014)
• Modern methods for detecting examiner bias in naturalistic assessment data (Jieke Chen, MSc Statistics and Operational Research, Distinction, summer 2013)

My principal areas of research are Medical Education and Applied Statistics. I also collaborate in and supervise research projects over a range of clinical specialties. My personal research interests fall into the categories Teaching Statistics to Medical Students and Students in the Health Sciences, Statistical Methods for Assessing the Quality of Assessment Practices, Modern Methods for Standard Setting in Medicine and the Health Sciences, Medical Statistics, Research-Teaching Linkages, Mathematical Logic and the Philosophies of Mathematics and Statistics.

Current PhD students
Sandhya Marrana (2023 - ), Centre for Change and Complexity in Learning, University of Southern Australia