Clinical Trials (MSc and Postgraduate Diploma)
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 Department of Epidemiology & Population Health, have designed and developed this course with colleagues from the Department 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
Diana Elbourne, Professor of Healthcare Evaluation in the Medical Statistics
Unit at LSHTM, 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.
Sasha Appleton 
Since 2000, Sasha Appleton has worked coordinating and conducting epidemiologic research on multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). After completing her Masters in Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in 2007, she relocated to London and became a part of the Clinical Trials team in October of 2008. Sasha is delighted to have joined the distance learning community at the LSHTM and is committed to the development and management of the Clinical Trials course through her role as co-course director and tutor.
Julia Langham
Julia Langham originally studied Politics and Philosophy (BA) before moving to London for a Health Services Research post at the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre. While working at ICNARC she obtained a Masters in Epidemiology at the LSHTM (1998). Prior to a move to the LSHTM in 2000, Julia coordinated a randomised controlled trial of complex interventions for the secondary prevention of heart disease in General Practice surgeries whilst at Kensington Chelsea and Westminster Health Authority. Since joining the LSHTM’s Health Services Research Unit, Julia coordinated The National Study of Subarachnoid Haemorrhage, partially supported by a an MRC Special Training Fellowship in Health Services Research and is currently completing a PhD thesis based on this study investigating methods of producing performance indicators. More recently Julia coordinated The Verteporfin Photodynamic Therapy Cohort Study. Julia has been a tutor for the MSc Public Health and seminar leader for Basic Epidemiology on both in-house and DL courses since 2000, and after a period of maternity leave, has joined the Clinical Trials team (August 2009) as Co-Course Director and as a tutor on two modules, Reporting and Reviewing Clinical Trials, and Protocol Development.