International Advisory Board

Derick Mitchell, PhD. is the Chief Executive of the Irish Platform for Patient Organisations, Science and Industry (IPPOSI – www.ipposi.ie). IPPOSI is a unique, patient-led partnership between patient groups, scientists, industry and other key decision makers, which builds consensus on issues relevant to all involved in delivering health innovations to people with unmet medical needs. Derick has over ten years experience of working in patient involvement, scientific communications, multi-stakeholder management and advocacy at both the national and European level. Derick leads IPPOSI’s participation in the European Patients Academy (EUPATI), an 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 a member of a number of national and international boards including the EHealth Ireland committee; the oversight committee for the National Rare Disease Plan; the Medical and Life Sciences Committee of the Royal Irish Academy, the HIQA Research Ethics & HTA Advisory Boards, among others. 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 toddler daughters.

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.

Prof Montgomery is Professor of Medical Statistics and Clinical Trials at the Nottingham Clinical Trials Unit, University of Nottingham. Alan’s research is in the design, conduct, analysis and reporting of pragmatic phase III randomised trials, and in methodological research to increase the evidence base for the efficient conduct of such trials. He is currently a member of the NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme Clinical Evaluation and Trials funding board.

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 an Associate Professor, School of Epidemiology and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, where he holds a University Research Chair. Dr. Moher holds an MSc in epidemiology and PhD in clinical epidemiology and biostatistics.Dr. Moher has been involved in developing the science of how to optimally conduct and report systematic reviews for most of his professional career. Another part of his research has focused on how best to develop reporting guidelines. He spearheaded the development of the CONSORT statement and the PRISMA statement. He has been actively involved in the development of many other reporting guidelines and is part of the EQUATOR Network. Dr. Moher leads an active program investigating predatory journals and publishers. More recently Dr. Moher led a program to develop core competencies for scientific journal editors. He is actively developing a program to investigate alternatives to current incentives and rewards in academic medicine. Dr. Moher has been recognized several times as a Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher (Web of Science).

Dr Erika Daly is Director Biostatistics at ICON plc, a top-5 global CRO (contract research organisation) in the pharmaceutical industry, based at ICON’s global headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. She joined ICON Clinical Research as a statistician in 2004 and has supported clinical trials in many therapeutic areas including oncology, CNS, GI disorders, and cardiovascular diseases. Initially a project statistician, she has been in management roles of increasing responsibility since 2008. As a statistical consultant, she has represented pharma companies in their discussions with the FDA and has served as the unblinded statistician for numerous data monitoring committees (DMCs). Dr Daly obtained her B.A. (Statistics and Economics), M.Sc. (Statistics) and Ph.D. (Biostatistics) from University College Dublin. She is a Chartered Statistician with the Royal Statistical Society, a former member of the PSI (Statisticians in the Pharmaceutical Industry) Scientific Committee and currently sits on the PSI Regulatory Affairs Committee. Research interests include analysis methods for matched binary and time-to-event data, multivariate modelling and trial design.

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.

Dr Fionnuala Keane graduated in 1994 with a B.Sc. Honours in Biochemistry and in 1999 with a PhD in Biochemistry from the National University of Ireland Galway. From Oct 1999 to Feb 2001 Fionnuala worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in molecular biology and neurochemistry at the Department of Biochemistry, UCD. She joined Novartis Ireland Ltd in Feb 2001 and worked there as a Central Nervous System Hospital Specialist with the sales and marketing team until June 2003. At this point Fionnuala joined ICORG, the All Ireland Co-operative Oncology Research Group and she remained in ICORG from July 2003 to May 2014. Fionnuala was appointed to the role of Development Lead for the HRB CRCI in May 2014 to develop and deliver a 5 year business plan in line with the HRB strategic objectives, working in close collaboration with the CRF/C directors. In May 2015 Fionnuala was appointed to the role of Chief Operating Officer for the HRB CRCI.

Joe Eustace, Professor of Medicine, Consultant Nephrologist and the Director of the Clinical Research Facility, Cork. Professor Eustace graduated from University College Dublin in 1990, undertook postgraduate training in General Internal Medicine and Nephrology in Dublin and from 1996-1999 he undertook a Clinical Nephrology Fellowship in Johns Hopkins University Hospital, Baltimore; and a NIH Fellowship in Clinical Epidemiology at the Bloomberg School of Public Health as part of which he completed a MHS degree. He was subsequently appointed to the Johns Hopkins Faculty of Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology as an Assistant Professor and while at Hopkins served as Director of Ambulatory Dialysis Services and as State Commissioner in the Maryland Kidney Commission. He returned to Ireland to take up the position of Consultant Nephrologist at Cork University Hospital in 2005 and was appointed Professor and Director of the HRB Clinical Research Facility at UCC in 2011. He is an Executive Committee Member of HRB Trials’ Methodology Research Network. His research has been funded by the NIH (NIDDK), National Kidney Foundation, Johns Hopkins Clinical Scientist Award and the Health Research Board. He has authored or co-authored over 90 peer reviewed original scientific papers, and written 8 book chapters. His current research focus is on Vascular and Bone Health in Renal Transplant Recipients.

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).

Dr 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.

Prof. 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).