Postgraduate

MSc and Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Trials

Lead College

Academic Direction: LSHTM

The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is the University of London's major resource for postgraduate teaching and research in public health and tropical medicine, as well as the leading postgraduate medical institution in these subjects in Europe.

It has an international standing with a staff that has unique multidisciplinary and international experience.

The Course Director is Diana Elbourne, Professor of Healthcare Evaluation in the Medical Statistics Unit at LSHTM. She has a mixed background, having graduated in Social Administration from LSE before gaining an MSc (Stats) at Brunel University, where she also worked as a Statistics lecturer. Her PhD at LSE was based on a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of women having access to their medical records. From 1981-1996 Diana was at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit in Oxford, holding the roles of social statistician, trials statistician, and later Director of the Perinatal Trials Service. During this period she was involved in a large number of RCTs and systematic reviews. She continued this applied research after moving to LSHTM in 1997, broadening from the perinatal field to include trials in liver transplantation, adult intensive care and nutritional interventions for older people. Her methodological research includes cluster RCTs, data monitoring committees, reporting of trials, and qualitative research on the views of people participating in trials. Between 2000-2005 Diana also worked part time as Professor of Evidence Informed Policy and Practice at the Institute of Education. Her main teaching interests are in clinical trials, starting with short courses whilst in Oxford, and extending these to the clinical trials unit in the MSc in Medical Statistics and the annual short course in clinical trials at LSHTM.

LSHTM has a concentration of staff with international reputations in the planning, co-ordination, statistical analysis and reporting of clinical trials. A team led by Professor Diana Elbourne  from their Clinical Trials Research Group, based within the Department of Epidemiology & Population Health, have designed and developed this course with colleagues from the Department of Infectious Diseases.