Biographies

Find out about the members of the Child Health Informatics Group.

Staff

Prof. Ruth Gilbert

I am one of the principal investigators in the Child Health Informatics Group and a clinical epidemiologist, who trained in paediatrics.  

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.

Dr Ruth Blackburn

I am a senior researcher at the Institute of Child Health working on the ECHILD project, with a particular focus on mental health in children, young people and their families.  This work builds on my post-doctoral UKRI Innovation Fellowship at the Institute of Health Informatics, where I was the Deputy Leader for the Public Health Data Science Group. My fellowship focused on using data science to examine adolescent health in schools, particularly those relating to stress, self-harm, violence, and drug or alcohol-use.

Prof. Pia Hardelid

I am one of the principal investigators in the Child Health Informatics Group, the Air Pollution, housing and respiratory tract Infections in Children: NatIonal birth Cohort study (PICNIC Study) and Kids’ Environment and Health Cohort,  a new, national data resource for research. 

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. 

Prof. Katie Harron

I am Professor of Statistics and Health Data Science at the UCL Institute of Child Health.  My research falls into two main areas, my methodological research focused on the development of statistical methods for data linkage. My applied research focuses on exploiting existing data sources to improve services for mothers and families, and particularly vulnerable families.

Dr Leah Li

My research interests include the methodology for the analysis of life course data, intergenerational and cross-cohort comparisons. My research focusses on physical growth (height and BMI), cognitive and socio-emotional development, and adult health.

Prof. Bianca De Stavola

My main research activities involve the understanding, development and implementation of statistical methods for long-term longitudinal studies, with specific applications to life-course epidemiology.  As these often involve causal enquiries, in particular related to understanding pathways towards disease development, mediation analysis is my main interest. 

Dr Linda Wijlaars

I am interested in life course epidemiology and use of routinely collected health data (general practice databases and hospital admission records) to explore how parental factors (such as mental health) influence child outcomes.

Dr Ania Zylbersztejn

I am a research associate working as part of the NIHR Children's Policy Research Unit (https://www.ucl.ac.uk/children-policy-research) on long-term conditions and disability in children. My current research project uses data from primary and secondary care to explore mental and physical health of children with learning disability or autism, and their mothers, fathers and siblings.

Matthew Lilliman

I am the Data Resource Manager within the Child Health Informatics Group.  I am responsible for the end-to-end process of acquiring and managing large administrative data sets and other data resources alongside our researchers.  This work underpins our safe access to de-identified, population based, administrative data resources.  I’m additionally the programme manager for the HDRUK Social and Environmental Determinants of Health Driver Programme, the HOPE Programme and the Kids’ Environment and Health Cohort.

Dr Louise Mc Grath-Lone

I am a Lecturer in Social Policy at UCL Institute of Education. My research focuses on leveraging existing administrative data sources to understand and improve services for children, particularly those who are vulnerable.

Dr Kate Lewis

I am a Research Fellow on the HOPE study, which is investigating the impact of special educational needs provision on children’s health using linked education and hospital data. I am responsible for quantitative data analysis using biostatistical and econometric causal methods to evaluate the impact of the timing and duration special educational needs (SEN) provision. 

Dr Matthew A Jay

I am a Research Fellow in Epidemiology, with special interests in law and legal epidemiology, education and paediatric pain.

Dr Vincent Nguyen

I am a Research Fellow contributing to the HOPE study where I investigate the use of trial emulation and dynamic panel modelling to inform public policies to improve the health of children who are in need of SEND provisions.

Lucy Karwatowska

I am a Research Fellow on the HOPE study, where I am responsible for quantitative data analysis using biostatistical and econometric causal methods to evaluate the impact of the timing and duration of SEND provision.

Tony Stone

I am a Data Scientist on the ECHO-CCS study working to investigate the impact of a diagnosis of childhood cancer on school attainment and attendance using the ECHILD data resource. This work will provide evidence for education and care providers to make decisions about how best to support children with cancer. 

Dr Georgina Ireland

I am a research fellow working on a Nuffield Trust funded project that will link administrative data from public family courts to national health data, in order to explore the potential for healthcare services to reduce the chances of mothers or children becoming involved in care proceedings and improve their health and welfare outcomes.

Catherine Bunting

I am a Research Assistant working on a mixed-methods study to evaluate the return on investment in health visiting in England. My research uses linked health, education and community services data to understand the impact of health visiting on outcomes for children and families.

Dr Mengyun Liu

I am a post-doctoral research fellow on the Health Visiting and Adverse Childhood Experience (HV & ACEs) project. and I split my time between the UCL Institute of Child Health and Institute of Education. My research explores different models of health visiting service delivery in England and examines the impact of health visiting service for families with adverse childhood experiences, using linked administrative data.

Dr Qi Feng

I joined ICH UCL in 2023, as a senior data scientist working on data linkage for ECHILD project. Before this, I worked as an epidemiologist for UK Biobank for two years in the University of Oxford. I obtained my PhD degree in Public Health from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. 

Dr Glory Atilola

I am a Senior Research Fellow in Environmental Epidemiology on the PICNIC project, with the objective to investigate long-term effects and pathways of air pollution exposure and housing conditions on respiratory health outcomes in a national birth cohort of children under 5 years. My research interest lies in the field of exposure science (built environment, noise, poor air quality, microbial pathogens, prenatal influences, chemicals, nutrition, and heavy metals) and population health (respiratory, cardiometabolic, cardiorespiratory, neurological, and immunological disease outcomes) across the life course. 

Ayana Cant

I am a Research Assistant on the HOPE study, investigating the impact of special educational needs provision on children’s health and education outcomes using linked hospital and education data. Specifically, I am investigating the educational attainment outcomes of children who have been identified to have neurodisability phenotypes indicative of requiring special educational needs provision. 

Dr Melody Turner

I am an MRes student exploring the associations between access to greenspaces and the psychological well-being of children and young people.  

Dr Joana Cruz

I am a Research Fellow dedicated to shaping health agendas, with a primary research interest in uncovering the complex interplay between environmental determinants and health outcomes in children and young people. Funded by HDR-UK, my current projects are in the Kids’ Environment and Health Cohort and the PICNIC study. My expertise lies in the integration of health, demographic, socio-economic, and environmental data from varied sources, succinctly mapped to small administrative units. 

Dr Amal Rammah

I am a senior researcher at the Institute of Child Health working on the Air Pollution, housing and respiratory tract Infections in Children: NatIonal birth Cohort study (PICNIC Study), the Kids’ Environment and Health Cohort and the HDRUK Social and Environmental Determinants of Health Driver Programme. 

Dr Isobel Ward

I am a research fellow at the Institute of Child Health working on the ECHILD project though the Children and Families Policy Research Unit. Broadly, my research interests are around health inequalities in children and women, and understanding how we can use administrative data to answer important public health and policy questions.  

Difei Shi

I am a Research Assistant at the UCL Institute of Child Health, working on the ECHILD project, with a particular focus on maternal care experiences and birth/child outcomes. 

Dr Farzan Ramzan

I am a Senior Data Scientist at the Institute of Child Health supporting the development of the ECHILD Database project, which links routinely collected education and health data. 

Dr Eliazar Luna

I am a Research Fellow working on the ADR England Research Community Catalyst for Children at Risk of Poor Outcomes.

Dr Joachim Tan

I am a Senior Research Fellow with the NIHR Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre (Applied Child Health Informatics) based in the Child Health Informatics Group. I work on several projects involving electronic health records and administrative data to improve the evidence and outcomes for children with rare or complex inborn conditions, such as congenital malformations and genetic diseases.

Dr Louise Macaulay

I am a Research Assistant at the Institute of Child Health, working on a project that builds on the HOPE study to examine health and educational outcomes for young people with neurodisability, using the ECHILD database

PhD Students

Claire Grant

I am a PhD student in epidemiology interested in using linked administrative data between family courts and healthcare to better understand the health needs of families involved in care proceedings. 

Amanda Clery

I am a PhD student in the Population, Policy and Practice Department supervised by Katie Harron. My project aims to understand the variation in the delivery of the health visiting service across local authorities and levels of deprivation in England. 

Ofran Almossawi

I am an NIHR Clinical Academic Research Fellow in the second year of my PhD degree. My project is focused on understanding the difference in mortality between the sexes in paediatric intensive care units.

Irina Lut

I am an MRC DTP funded PhD student investigating what administrative data can tell us about the impact of family structure on child health and development outcomes. I am interested in social determinants of child health and the use of linked administrative data sources.

Joseph Lam

I am a Research Assistant and Part-time PhD Student (funded by the Wellcome Trust) in the Population, Policy and Practice Department.  
My project focuses on progressing research equity for marginalised groups by improving data linkage methodologies and processes.

Caroline Hart

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.

Vishnuga Raveendran

I am a PhD student in the Population, Policy and Practice department supervised by Pia Hardelid, and funded by CHR-CIO. My PhD aims to use administrative data to examine the healthcare use due to SARS-CoV-2 infection in children.

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.

Qing Zhang

I am a PhD student in the Population, Policy and Practice Department at ICH. My research focuses on the health and educational outcomes of children with chronic liver disease, exploring how these factors interact to influence their development.