Biographies

Much of my research uses de-identified, administrative data to address clinical and policy questions related to the health of children and families. My research uses record linkage to consider health, social and educational trajectories of children from birth to adulthood and to incorporate information from parents and siblings.

Read more about Prof. Ruth Gilbert

I co-direct the NIHR Children and Families Policy Research which conducts research to inform the Department of Health and Social Care and related government bodies. I also co-directs the Health Data Research UK driver programme on Social and Environmental Determinants of Health.

I established the ECHILD database (Education and Child Health Insights from Linked Data) and works with researchers using linked educational, hospitalisation and social care data for all children in England to assess health-related determinants and outcomes across the life course and from mother to child(ren). I lead the NIHR-funded HOPE programme which uses ECHILD to evaluate the impact of special educational needs provision on health outcomes. Most recently, I have established a novel database linking de-identified health data to public law, family court administrative records on women involved in court proceedings. The Nuffield Foundation funded study aims to understand health needs and opportunities for earlier health intervention. 

My goal is to widen the use of health and non-health administrative data to enable research to address health within families.

More information: https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/4701-ruth-gilbert

Read more about Dr Ruth Blackburn

My recent work has focused on measuring and addressing physical and mental health inequalities, particularly for vulnerable and hard-to-reach groups such as homeless people and women with substance misuse.
 
I have a PhD in epidemiology, which formed part of the PRIMROSE program of work to predict and manage cardiovascular risk in people with severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. My PhD research used UK primary care data from The Health Improvement Network (THIN) to investigate inequalities in statin prescribing and provides the first estimates of the effectiveness of statins for reducing first myocardial infarction and stroke in people with severe mental illness.

More information: https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/37208-ruth-blackburn

My research focuses on using routinely collected health data (including birth and death certificates, hospital admission records and general practice databases) for child health research. I have used these data to estimate the effectiveness of influenza vaccines, determine the role of chronic conditions in childhood mortality, and carry out international comparisons of childhood morbidity and mortality. 

Read more about Prof. Pia Hardelid

My particular interest is in the epidemiology of respiratory infections in children. In 2013 I was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the National Institute for Health Research to determine the burden of severe influenza in children, and examine whether influenza vaccines, antivirals and antibiotics can prevent hospital admissions. I have also carried out several studies of respiratory syncytial virus epidemiology, and antibiotic prescribing in children. I am the principal investigator for the MRC-funded Air Pollution, housing and respiratory tract Infections in Children: NatIonal birth Cohort study (PICNIC) study. 

My research programme also involves analyses to examine the impact of health inequalities (due to disability, ethnic group/migration status, or family socio-economic status) on children and how these can be mitigated. I am the lead for administrative data analyses, and deputy lead of the long-term conditions theme of the NIHR Children's Policy Research Unit (https://www.ucl.ac.uk/children-policy-research), and I lead the UCL programme of work for the NIHR School for Public Health Research 'Harnessing data to Improve Child Health' project (https://sphr.nihr.ac.uk/research/children-young-people-families/harnessing-data-to-improve-child-health-wp2/).

More information https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/20074-pia-hardelid

Read More about Prof. Katie Harron

My methodological research focused on the development of statistical methods for data linkage, and particularly for evaluating the quality of linkage. I aims to develop methods to exploit the rich data that are collected about populations as we interact with services throughout our lives. My work facilitates the wider use of these population-based administrative and electronic data sources for epidemiological research, to support clinical trials, and to inform policy. I am a co-investigator on the Health Data Research UK - London site.

My applied research focuses on exploiting existing data sources to improve services for mothers and families, and particularly vulnerable families. My aim is to improve our understanding of the health of individuals from birth to young adulthood. My current research links data from health, education and social care at a national level, in order to determine outcomes of an early intervention for first time teenage mothers, and to explore variation in Health Visiting across England. I am passionate about increasing the public understanding of using administrative data for research. 

My work involves collaborations with a number of key stakeholders for national data, including the Office for National Statistics, NHS Digital, Department for Education and Public Health England. I am a member of the Confidentiality Advisory Committee, a national regulatory body responsible for overseeing access to identifiable data for research.

More information https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/28950-katie-harron

Read more about Dr Leah Li

My recent work includes joint multivariate response modelling for exploring the association between growth trajectories and health outcomes, and estimating trends in cardiovascular disease risk factors in adults and children in the UK and the impact of changes in body sizes using multiple studies/cohorts. I am also interested in adverse childhood experiences (abuse and maltreatment), child-to-adult development and adult health outcomes.  

More information: https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/9403-leah-li

Read more about Prof Bianca De Stavola

Over the years I have developed several methodological and substantive collaborations, in particular with Rhian Daniel (University Cardiff),  Isabel dos Santos Silva (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine), George Ploubidis (UCL CLS), and Nadia Micali (UCL GOS ICH).

More information: https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/61960-bianca-de-stavola

Read more about Dr Linda Wijlaars

I am currently working on a project in the Child Policy Research Unit (CPRU), using hospital admission records and primary care data to determine how primary care is associated with emergency use of secondary care services by children and young people.

More information: https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/30457-linda-wijlaars

Read more about Dr Ania Zylbersztejn

My research interests include international comparisons child health, epidemiology of respiratory syncytial virus, and health of children with learning disabilities and complex health needs. My PhD used national birth cohorts from administrative health records to compare mortality in children aged less than 5 years old in England and Sweden. I have worked on the first community-based serological survey of RSV in the UK which used linked serological samples, questionnaire data and administrative health records from the Born in Bradford cohort study. I also used routinely collected hospital records linked to pharmacy dispensing records to explore patterns of prescribing of palivizumab, a passive immunotherapy available to infants at high risk of severe infection, in English hospitals. 

More information: https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/47044-ania-zylbersztejn

Read more about Matthew Lilliman

My background has been in identifying and applying new technology and practices to orchestrate secure data flows. This includes previous roles as UCL’s GEO Strategic Data Manager and as a project manager and systems analyst for various Enterprise Data Warehousing and data projects in the education and health sectors.  

I’ve particularly strong interest in visual sense making as a means to close communication gaps and promote understanding.  I find that this is crucial to maximise a data projects success and value creation. 

I hold a Master of Engineering from Kings College London in Mechatronics and a Master of Science in Data Business from University College Cork.  

Read more about Dr Louise Mc Grath-Lone

My background is in public health and I am particularly interested in using administrative data to explore outcomes and inequalities. My recent research has used administrative datasets to describe how different patterns of care history relate to children’s educational outcomes and to evaluate the impact of a novel model of foster care support on retention.

I have an MPH from Imperial College London and a PhD in Population Health from University College Cork. Before my research career, I was a secondary school teacher.

More information: https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/45674-louise-mc-grathlone

Read more about Matthew Jay

From September 2021, I have been working in the NIHR Children and Families Policy Research Unit using the ECHILD database to examine the links between chronic health conditions, school absence and exam results. I have worked on a range of projects using administrative and cohort data, including on off-rolling and exclusion of children with a history of social care involvement and in the pain service at Great Ormond Street Hospital. I have practised as a welfare rights adviser in the Citizens Advice Camden outreach at Great Ormond Street and I hold an Bachelor of Laws (LLB, University of Westminster, 2012) an MSc in Social Epidemiology (UCL, 2017) and a PhD in Epidemiology (UCL, 2021).

More information:

•    Personal URL: www.matthewjayepi.com 
•    E-mail: matthew.jay@ucl.ac.uk

Read more about Vincent Nguyen

My main interest in research is using appropriate methods on large datasets to provide data-driven policies to governmental bodies to enact changes that improve population health.  

Prior to joining the Child Health Informatics Group, I worked as a research associate and essential worker in the public fight against COVID-19 on the Virus Watch programme. I also have experience in engineering systems used in aeronautical environments.  

My Public Health England sponsored PhD in epidemiology investigated the impact of public health interventions on preventing type 2 diabetes using linked primary and secondary care datasets. I also hold an engineering degree, and two Master’s degrees, one in Business Administration and the other in Health Informatics.

More information: https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/64668-vincent-nguyen

Read more about Lucy Karwatowska

My main research interests include triangulation of evidence using different methods and large population samples to strengthen causal inference. I am currently completing a PhD in Epidemiology at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health.

Read more about Tony Stone

My research is focussed on data linkage methods and their applications to inform clinical and policy decision making. I am particularly interested in investigating and quantifying the impact of error/bias arising from complex record linkages on the results of subsequent analyses.

I have extensive experience leading on the data management and linkage of large-scale administrative health data projects. Previous projects have focussed on development of predictive models for the development of clinical decision support tools in the pre-hospital setting, and the identification of measures to monitor performance and evaluate changes to urgent and emergency care services. I previously supported work on the appraisal of alcohol policies through decision modelling, with a particular focus on specialist alcohol treatment services.

More information: https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/92864-tony-stone

Read more about Georgina Ireland

The project will link CAFCASS public family court data to Hospital Episode Statistics and Mortality. The linked data will be used to identify mothers involved in care proceedings and to follow them up in their anonymised hospital records to understand their health needs and hospital contacts before, during and after court proceedings, and compare them to mothers who are not involved in court proceedings.

Prior to joining UCL I worked at the UK Health Security Agency, formerly Public Health England, on the surveillance of blood borne viruses and on the COVID-pandemic response. During this time I also completed a retrospective PhD by publication at the University of Bristol in 2021 that used linked national, routinely available datasets to improve the quality of information within hepatitis surveillance datasets and monitor the hepatitis C cascade of care as the UK moves towards WHO elimination goals.

More information: https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/61897-georgina-ireland

Read more about Catherine Bunting

I have a background in epidemiology and statistics and my focus is using research to inform public health policy and practice. My current work uses administrative data to understand whether mothers and children with a similar level of underlying need experience different outcomes, depending on the amount and type of health visiting support they receive. I am interested in how quantitative and qualitative data can be integrated to assess the value of public health programmes.  Alongside my academic work, I run a monthly training workshop for charities on economic evaluation. I completed an MSc in Epidemiology at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in 2022.

Read more about Mengyun Lin

My background is in epidemiology and health statistics. Previously, I studied at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for an MSc and PhD in epidemiology. My PhD project is about the determinants of having caesarean sections among Chinese women, with specific focuses on maternal age, parity, and health system factors. I have a strong research interest in using administrative datasets to understand the delivery and use of health services and detect areas for improvement.

Read more about Qi Feng

More information: https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/93536-qi-feng

Read more about Glory Atilola

As a statistician, I seek to develop and apply various statistical modelling approaches to large epidemiological, experimental, and real-world data with complex dependency structure using a combination of epidemiologic, spatiotemporal, statistical, machine learning, and bioinformatics methods to generate novel insights into determinants of population health and well-being, causal discovery science, and health policy applications. I obtained a BSc in General Microbiology at the Redeemers University Nigeria (2009), MSc in Epidemiology at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa (2013), and a PhD in Statistics at Northumbria University, England UK, with a thesis titled - "Bayesian modelling and mapping of health outcomes in space and time using complex national surveys"(2021).

Previously, I worked as a Research Associate in Biostatistics at Imperial College London (ICL), as a lead statistician and environmental epidemiologist on the aircraft noise and cardiovascular and cardiometabolic outcomes study around major English international airports in the UK – 2021 to 2023 (working closely with Prof. Marta Blangiardo at ICL and Prof. Anna Hansell and Prof. John Gulliver of the Centre for Research and Environmental Sustainability at University of Leicester); Statistician and project database manager on the UN Population Council - funded “Evidence to End Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: Research to Help Girls and Women Thrive” project, as part of the Northumbria University research group -2018 to 2020; and as a statistical Consultant on a UNICEF-funded Consultancy on “Harmful Traditional Practices” in 10 UNICEF’s Eastern and Southern African countries (ESAR, plus three countries outside of the region); Lecturer and Mentor in Microbiology, Epidemiology, Genomics, Public Health and Biomedical Research.

Additional areas of research work in Global Health include Infectious Diseases (HIV, Tuberculosis, Malaria, Hepatitis-B, and COVID-19), Drug Resistance studies, Chronic Diseases (Cardiometabolic related outcomes and long COVID), Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting, Microbial Genomics and Evolutionary dynamics, Molecular Epidemiology, and Statistical Genetics. I am a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society.
More information: https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/94103-glory-atilola

Read more about Ayana Cant

My background is in Psychology and child  mental health research. My previous work used longitudinal cohort studies to investigate genetic influences on symptom trajectories of neurodevelopmental disorders using latent growth curve models and polygenic scores. I hold an MSc in Child and Adolescent Mental Health from UCL Institute of Child Health.

Read more about Meldoy Turner

I am analysing "The Children's People and Nature Survey for England" (CPAN) dataset for my project. This is under the supervision of Prof Pia Hardelid and Dr Samantha Hajna. In addition, I currently work as a General Practitioner.

 

Read more about Amal Rammah 

As an environmental epidemiologist, my research has focused on characterising structural and individual determinants of health and health inequalities among vulnerable populations in the built, physical and social environments (including air pollution, temperature, greenness and psychosocial stress), particularly in the areas of maternal and child health. I also have experience in designing and conducting studies that recruit research subjects as part of community-engaged projects focused on environmental health disparities, particularly in response to natural and industrial disasters.

I am currently interested in investigating the relationship between air pollution, birth outcomes and respiratory tract infections in children. I am also interested in the combined effects of air pollution and stress on pregnancy complications (such as hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and gestational diabetes) and the postpartum risk of cardiometabolic disease for mothers and children.

Read more about Isobel Ward

I am currently working on a project exploring adversity related deaths in children and adolescents. This work aims to uncover inequalities in health trajectories from adolescence to adulthood for young people receiving social care or special educational needs support in England.

Read more about Difei Shi

My background is in epidemiology and statistics. I hold an MSc in Social Epidemiology from University College London. Currently, my work involves exploring maternal experiences of out-of-home care (OHC) during childhood and its impact on children's educational and healthcare outcomes, using ECHILD Mother-Baby Linkage data.

Read more about Farzan Ramzan

My research interests include health informatics, epidemiology, research computing and database technologies. 

More information: https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/92553-farzan-ramzan 

Read more about Eliazar Luna

I use ECHILD to examine health trajectories and outcomes of children who have been in contact with social services in England. I have a PhD in Epidemiology and Public Health and prior to joining the Institute of Child Health, I worked in public mental health at different centres within the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Read more about Joachim Tan

My research uses linked data resources such as ECHILD and CPRD to evaluate the health and educational trajectories of children with various health conditions. I also collaborate with the European network of population-based registries for the epidemiological surveillance of congenital anomalies (EUROCAT) to investigate potential teratogenic medications and enhance congenital anomaly research using healthcare databases. Previously I worked in the EU-funded EUROlinkCAT project, supporting registries to standardise linked national/regional datasets and synthesise findings on the lives of children with congenital anomalies across Europe. My interests include the epidemiology of congenital anomalies, phenotyping methods and rare disease study design.

I hold an MSc in Medical Statistics from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a PhD and Masters in Philosophy from Oxford University. More information: https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/94393-joachim-tan

Read more about Louise Macaulay

I hold an MSc in Social Policy and Social Research from UCL and have a background in User Experience research and applied psychology. My work examines trends in healthcare utilisation, educational support, and school participation for young people with neurodisability and their unaffected peers, exploring variations in outcomes across different neurodisability types from adolescence to adulthood.

Read more about Claire Grant

My PhD project combines both quantitative and qualitative methods to understand the role of health and healthcare in supporting birth mothers who have had their child/ren placed in out-of-home care. My interests are in health equity and social determinants of physical and mental health across the lifespan.

I am funded by the ESRC Ubel Doctoral Training Programme and supervised by Dr Rebecca Lacey and Dr Jenny Woodman. Prior to this role, I was based in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at King’s College London. I hold an MSc in Psychology of Mental Health from the University of Edinburgh.

 

Read more about Amanda Clery

My PhD project is using a mixed-methods approach, analysing administrative data from local authorities and the Community Services Dataset coupled with qualitative data from health visitors and families.

Previously, I worked in the Unit for Medical Statistics at the School of Population Health, King’s College London and I have an MSc in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Read more about Ofran Almossawi

My project aims to link data from PICANet, HES, and ONS to generate a longitudinal cohort where I would follow children from pre admission to PICU and up to 5 years post discharge from PICU.  I intend to apply causal inference methods to the linked data in order to address my research questions. 

I have a Master's degree in Advanced Paediatrics from Kings College London, and a Master's in Medical Statistics from LSHTM.  I am a GOSH employee and spend 20% of my fellowship time on clinical activities.

Read more about Irina Lut

I am supervised by Dr. Pia Hardelid, Dr. Katie Harron and Dr. Jenny Woodman. For my project I am using linked administrative data including birth registrations and 2011 Census information from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), and Hospital Episode Statistics (HES).  

I hold an MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. 

Read more about Joseph Lam

My PhD project is supervised by Katie Harron, Ruth Blackburn and Rob Aldridge from UCL Institute of Health Informatics, I would be assessing and evaluating data linkage of the Million Migrant Study (linked administrative data in 1.5 million migrants in the UK), UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration (UK LLC, linkage of 20+ UK longitudinal cohorts with NHS health administrative data), and ECHILD, using Splink, an Open-source Python library developed by the Ministry of Justice. I hope to shed light on, and suggest alternatives to the practices in data linkage that might lead to biases that disproportionately exclude marginalised communities, such as people from minority ethnic groups, in health research. 

My background is in mental health research and psych/social epidemiology. I previously worked at King’s College London, ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health as a data scientist/research assistant.  I hold an MSc in Clinical Mental Health Science from Division of Psychiatry, University College London. 

I am a PhD student supervised by Pia Hardelid and Bianca De Stavola working on the Air Pollution, housing and respiratory tract Infections in Children: National birth Cohort study (PICNIC Study).

I am interested in working with birth cohorts to investigate how adverse early life living environments can influence long term health and development outcomes.

Read more about Caroline Hart

My project will use Scottish Census data (2001 and 2011) from the National Records of Scotland, linked to routinely collected maternity and hospital records, birth registration data and ambient air pollution data. I aim to describe the contribution adverse early living environments have on inequalities in Lower Respiratory Tract Infection (LRTI) hospital admissions among children aged under 5.

I hold an MSc in Population Health (UCL) and a Postgraduate (Primary) teaching qualification. Prior to starting my studentship, I worked in a local authority public health funded role where I implemented some large-scale programmes focussed on reducing health and education inequalities in young children from diverse populations. This experience sparked my interest in translational public health research.

In my PhD, I am using the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) dataset, and focussing particularly on persistent post-infection symptoms that require healthcare use.

Read more about Vishnuga Raveendran

I am interested in infectious disease epidemiology and social inequalities of health, stemming from my MSc in Infectious Disease Epidemiology from UCL. Before starting my PhD, I worked as a research assistant in IGH, UCL on a feasibility study that aimed to understand the consequences of congenital cytomegalovirus infection.