Postgraduate study in Clinical Trials
Academic leadership: 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.
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 Faculty of Epidemiology & Population Health, have designed and developed this course with colleagues from the Faculty of Infectious Diseases. For further information about the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine please refer to the LSHTM website [external link].
Course Directors
“This course is suitable for those who have general or specialist experience in clinical trials and aim to broaden their role in the design, management, analysis and reporting of clinical trials, as well as for those wishing to gain an understanding of trials before moving into this increasingly important field.”
Professor Diana Elbourne
BSc MSc PhD
Diana Elbourne, Professor of Healthcare Evaluation in the Medical Statistics Department at LSHTM 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 randomised 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, intensive care, children with diabetes, 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 including the annual short course in clinical trials at LSHTM.
Jaran Eriksen
BSc MSc PhD
MD PhD
Jaran graduated as an MD from Karolinska Institutet (Stockholm, Sweden) in 2001 and went on to study for a PhD in clinical pharmacology at the same university. He successfully defended his PhD thesis, "Managing Childhood Malaria in rural Tanzania - focusing on drug use and resistance", in 2006. The PhD was a collaborative project between the division of Clinical Pharmacology and the division of Global Health (IHCAR). Jaran’s research area spans from molecular markers (mutation in dhfr/dhps genes of malaria parasites (Plasmodium falciparum)), case management of patients and clinical trials, to policy adoption at society level. He spent two years doing research in Morogoro and Pwani regions in Tanzania and later worked in several research projects involving clinical trials of interventions in the fields of malaria, HIV/AIDS and maternal health in Tanzania, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Uganda. From 2008 to 2010 Jaran worked as an EPIET fellow (European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training) based at the Health Protection Agency’s Centre for Infections in London. He joined the clinical trials MSc team as a course director and tutor on the trials design module in January 2011. He also works part time as a research fellow at LSHTM.
Julia Langham
BA MSc
Julia Langham is a Research Fellow in the Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health. Julia has been a Co-Course Director and tutor on the Clinical Trials Masters since 2009. Previous to this Julia was a tutor for the MSc Public Health and seminar leader for Basic Epidemiology on both in-house and DL courses between 2000-2008. Before joining the LSHTM, Julia coordinated a randomised controlled trial of complex interventions for the secondary prevention of heart disease in General Practice surgeries. She joined the LSHTM in 2000 to coordinate the National Study of Subarachnoid Haemorrhage on which her PhD thesis is based (2011) and then went on to coordinate The Verteporfin Photodynamic Therapy Cohort Study. Julia obtained the Masters in Epidemiology in from the LSHTM in 1998.