This course is taught by senior staff, all of whom are actively engaged in clinical research and teaching. The academic, teaching, technical and administrative support is provided by University of Sheffield members of staff together with contributions, where appropriate, from other experts in particular fields.
The main contacts for this course are:
Core Staff
Liz Croot (Course director and Practical Aspects of Clinical Research Module leader)
I am the course director for the MSc in Clinical Research and am module leader for 'Practical Aspects of Clinical Research'. I joined the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) at the University of Sheffield as a research fellow in 2001 and completed a qualitative PhD about the experiences of Pakistani parents living in Sheffield and caring for children with high support needs in 2005. This was funded by an NHS Executive (Trent) Health Services Research Training Fellowship. Prior to this I worked as a paediatric physiotherapist specialising in work with children with learning disabilities for 12 years. During this time I worked in a number of different countries including Bangladesh and the USA.
I am currently leading a study funded by the South Yorkshire Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC-SY) exploring factors that patients consider to be associated with successful secondary prevention of stroke.
More information...
Sarah Barnes (Introduction to Research Methods Module Lead)
I joined the University of Sheffield in 2000 as a Research Associate in Sheffield Institute for Studies in Ageing (SISA). Here I worked on the multi-disciplinary EPSRC-funded project Design in Caring Environments (DICE), a study of quality of life and building design in residential and nursing care homes for older people. During this time I completed my PhD which explored space, choice and control in care settings for older people and its relationship to resident quality of life. Following on from this I successfully managed a three year, multi-method, longitudinal study identifying the need for end of life care among older people with heart failure and their families, funded by the Department of Health. This was the first study to recruit a large, community-based sample of heart failure patients in the UK. New methods of identifying heart failure patients from primary care records were used to recruit over 500 heart failure patients from a number of GP practices.
In January 2007 I began working in ScHARR as a Lecturer in Public Health where I have retained my commitment to interdisciplinary/cross departmental research collaboration.
More information...
Cindy Cooper (Module leader Randomised Controlled Trials)
I am currently Director of the Clinical Trials Research Unit (CTRU) at ScHARR. After graduating in Pharmacology and Physiology from the University of Manchester and completing my PhD in neuropharmacology at the University of Nottingham, I worked at Sheffield and West Yorkshire Health Authorities in clinical audit and health needs assessment. I joined ScHARR in 1996 to establish the North Trent Research Office, to provide support to local NHS organisations in developing research strategy and obtaining research funding. The remit of the CTRU is to support the design and implementation of clinical trials of complex health interventions. I am also Chair of the Yorkshire & Humber Regional Funding Committee for Research for Patient Benefit.
I am based in the Design, Trials & Statistics Section.
More information...
Sarah Crede
I joined ScHARR in September 2013 working as a University Teacher in Health Services research. I am the course tutor for the MSc Clinical Research and am involved in the teaching of the Introduction to Statistics module. I have a background in Epidemiology and physiotherapy and have worked clinically in South Africa and in the UK. I have been involved in various research projects in South Africa and Africa which have covered various areas of interest namely: women's health, foetal alcohol syndrome and the impact healthcare technologies have on low-resource settings. Prior to joining ScHARR I was the research manager for a non-profit organization based in Cape Town.
Evangelos Kritsotakis (Introduction to Statistics module leader)
I joined the School of Health and Related Research at the University of Sheffield as a Lecturer in Epidemiology and Statistics in June 2014. I co-ordinate and teach the Introduction to Statistics module for the MSc in Clinical Research, and the Statistics and Epidemiology lecture series in Phase 1 of the Undergraduate Medical Degree (MBChB). I also co-lead the distance learning module in Communicable Disease Control (Master of Public Health) and contribute to the teaching of Epidemiology (Master of Public Health & MSc in Clinical Research).
My research focus has been on statistical and epidemiological principles and methods to evaluate and improve the delivery of hospital care, including the epidemiology of healthcare-associated infections and antibiotic use and the control of the transmission of antibiotic-resistant pathogens.
More information
Nasrin Nasr
I am a physiotherapist by background. I was awarded my PhD in patient-reported outcome measures from Sheffield Hallam University in 2007. I joined the Centre for Health and Social Care Research at Hallam University in 2008 and seconded to the ScHARR in 2009. I started a substantive position as research associate in the ScHARR and within the Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology group in January 2012.
More information...
Steven Ariss
I have a BA in Sociology, a PhD in Health Studies from the University of York and a PgCert in Learning and Teaching. I previously coordinated an NHS Research Network for Older People´s Mental Health and came to ScHARR from the Bradford Dementia Group (University of Bradford) in January 2009.
I am a health services researcher with an interest in qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods, and complex programme evaluation (including Realist and Developmental Evaluation). I was the Lead Evaluator for the CLAHRC-South Yorkshire programme and am leading the evaluation of new technologies in the combined Yorkshire and Humber CLAHRC. I also have a diverse ongoing programme of research, development, evaluation and service redesign in the use of technology for healthcare, including automated data collection, electronic care records and online dashboard development. I also have an interest in using Patient Reported Experience Measures (PREMS) for service improvement, and carry out qualitative data analysis for the National Audit for Intermediate Care.
More information...
Administrative support
You can contact the course administrator, Matt Scarbrough at scharr-clinres@sheffield.ac.uk
External Examiner
The External Examiner for the course is Professor Paola Dey, Professor of Public Health Epidemiology at the University of Central Lancashire.
|