Rosemary Brown (PhD)

Thesis title: Personalised Blood Testing Schedules in Chronic Disease Management

Biography

Background

Rosemary (Rosie) graduated from the University of Bath with a first-class honours degree in Mathematics and Statistics in 2016. She completed a year-long work placement at Roche Products Ltd in Welwyn Garden City as an assistant statistician during her studies, working on Phase II-IV oncology studies. After completing this degree, she studied Statistics with Applications in Medicine at Southampton, which she passed with a distinction and won three Dean's List Awards and the performance prize. 

In 2017, she moved to Glasgow and started her PhD in Cardiovascular Science, funded as part of the MRC DTP in Precision Medicine. Her PhD thesis, entitled, "A Precision Medicine Approach to Lipid Monitoring in the Secondary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease" was submitted in February, and her PhD awarded in May 2021. Following submission in February 2021, in March, she began working as a Biostatistician within the Insitute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences in Glasgow, investigating the effects of blood biomarkers in cardiovascular risk within the UK Biobank. 

Qualifications

2012-2016 BSc (Hons) Mathematics and Statistics with Year Long Work Placement (First Class, University of Bath)

2016-2017 MSc Statistics with Applications in Medicine (Distinction, University of Southampton)

2017-2021 PhD Cardiovascular Science (to be conferred July 2021, University of Glasgow)

Undergraduate teaching

2018-2021 MED4048:  Statistics (Glasgow) - Tutorials, 1:1 Project Consulting, Lecture 'Sample Size Calculations and Power' (2020), Assessment Marking

2020-2021 School of Life Sciences (Glasgow) - R Demonstrator

Postgraduate teaching

2018-2021 MED5538: Evidence-Based Biomedical Research Methods and Statistics (previously Stats I) (Glasgow) - Tutorials, Coursework Marking

2020-2021 MED5366: Applied Statistics for Clinical and Translational Research (Glasgow) - Coursework and Assessment Marking

Current research interests

PhD Project: Developed evidence-based algorithms so that the blood testing frequency for the prevention and management of cardiovascular disease can become personalised, using data available in the NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde Safehaven. Post-doc: Utilising UK Biobank, to investigate the effect of blood biomarkers, such as Lp(a), on cardiovascular risk within secondary prevention populations.

Past research interests

MSc Dissertation: Predicting Obstructive Sleep Apnoea in Children with Down Syndrome. Industrial Placement 2014-15: Phase II-IV oncology trials, primarily lymphoma and leukaemia.

Affiliated research centres

Project activity

A systematic review, published and included as part of the final thesis, found that whilst statins are universally recommended for those with established cardiovascular disease with a strong evidence base, there was little evidence to support the frequency of monitoring or the use of lipid targets. The majority of the thesis, using routine data from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, ultimately examined the possibility of identifying patients who could safely reduce the frequency of the lipid test components of their annual reviews. This initially consisted of the derivation of a cohort of 11,000 survivors of myocardial infarction. This population was similar to such cohorts, and statin adherence, and target lipid levels were found to be significantly associated with mortality risk. Furthermore, depending on whether the purpose of the lipid test within an annual review is to target lipids or adherence, models subsequently developed suggested that a reasonable proportion of tests could be considered unnecessary. However, further validation of results is needed before the implementation of the algorithms is considered.

Conference details

 21st-22nd May 2018: Farr Institute Symposium and Innovation Workshop (Manchester): Presented ePoster 

6th-8th March 2019: Diabetes UK Professional Conference (Liverpool): Attended

4th-6th September 2019: Joint European Congress of Epidemiology & Society of Social Medicine Annual Scientific Meeting  (Cork, Ireland):  Oral Presentation

29th-30th July 2020: Young Statistician’s Meeting (Virtual): Attended

 

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