Trent Research & Development Support Unit

John Bankart - Medical Statistician
John Bankart is a Medical Statistician employed by the Trent RDSU. His main research interest is in Artificial Neural Networks, with particular interest in Statistical Properties of various Neural Nets as a function of the binary properties of their input vectors, Neural Nets which perform Medical Diagnosis, and Permanent Memory in Neural Nets which are able to learn input-output associations. John also works on studies in a range of medical specialities for the Trent RDSU and teaches at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

I am able to give advice in the following areas:

Claire Burchnall - Chief Clerk and Short Course Coordinator
Short Course Administrator and Secretary to Martin Williams (Course Co-ordinator). Responsible for the organisation and booking of Trent RDSU short courses.

Julia Chernova - Medical Statistician
 Julia Chernova is a Medical Statistician employed by the Trent RDSU. She has a broad research interest in epidemiology and medical statistics with particular emphasis on relationships between a diet, physical activity and CVD. Julia also works on studies in a range of medical specialities for the Trent RDSU.

I am able to give advice in the following areas:

Clare Gillies - Medical Statistician

Clare Gillies is a medical statistician and has been based at the University of Leicester since 2001. She has  worked on a number of projects including a Ph.D. investigating evidence synthesis methods for health policy decision making, with particular reference to policies concerning screening for type 2 diabetes mellitus. She is currently investigating differences in estimated healthy life years across member states of the European community. Clare also works on studies in a range of medical specialities for the Trent RDSU and teaches on a number of their short courses.

I am able to give advice in the following areas:

• Identifying content for the website and primary care pages of the newsletter, such as funding, courses, publications and websites
• Literature searching and occasional searching for sources of funding
• Current awareness and guiding individuals towards appropriate sources
• Updating the Endnote database of capacity building literature

Elizabeth Ockleford - Research Associate in Qualitative Research
I graduated in Psychology at St Andrews in 1972 and have been involved in research and/or teaching ever since. Before coming to Leicester in 1977, I worked at the Max Planck Institute in Tubingen and at Cambridge University. My research activity has evolved from the neuropsychological and electrophysiological, via synchronising of hatching in birds, development of behaviour in human neonates and the effects of companion animals on chronically ill people, to qualitative research on Leicestershire maternity services, abuse of the elderly and involvement in research from both the researchers' and participants' points of view. An experienced teacher, I currently teach on the Medical Sociology and Health Psychology courses for University of Leicester medical students, as well as lecturing on Biological Psychology and on Social and Personality Development in old age to psychology undergraduates, Identity and Individual Differences and Biological Psychology to Lifelong Learners and a course called 'Exploring Psychology' to Open University students. Several of these commitments involve teaching research methods and supervising research projects. In my spare time I enjoy sailing and choral singing and try to keep track of my three children.

I am able to give advice in the following areas:

Sangeeta Parmar - Assistant Administrator
To provide administrative support to the administrator and other members of staff at the Leicester Unit. My main responsibilities include the administration of short courses, and Advice and Support Sessions together with maintaining the website and general day-to-day secretarial and clerical duties.

Nicky Spiers
Nicky Spiers is a medical statistician with a background in the analysis of cohort studies of health and physical disability in the older population. She is currently employed part-time and contributes to the short course programme as well as working on studies in a range of medical specialities for the Trent RDSU.

I am able to give advice in the following areas:

 Louise Smith - Information and Technology Manager
I’m responsible for the design, maintenance and development of the Trent RDSU website, on-line booking system and all the organisations IT developments. I also manage the internal data collection of the RDSU and the IT side of financial record keeping. In my role I identify the requirements of the organisation for publicity documents, flyers and posters. I chair the Website Development Group.
Please contact me if you have problems with any of the links on the website or questions, comments and suggestions about the content.

Martin Williams - Director of Trent RDSU Leicester
I am the Director of the Leicester Unit of Trent RDSU, Course Coordinator of the MSc in Health Services Research at University of Leicester.
I have expertise in both quantitative and qualitative methods and designs as well as information technology. My current research interests include palliative care and decision-making.

I am able to give advice in the following areas:

Claire Weston - Medical Statistician
Claire is a Medical Statistician for the Trent RDSU based in Leicester.  Claire has previously worked on clinical trials of children’s cancer where she developed her main research interest in Survival Analysis and Cure models.  Claire also has an interest in randomisation methods, epidemiology and genetics.

Claire will also be teaching some of the Trent RDSU short courses.  She has a vast experience of teaching, including short courses of basic statistics and epidemiology and first year medical undergraduate courses in statistics.


I am able to give advice in the following areas:

Kate Windridge - Research Fellow
I joined the Trent RDSU (Leicester) in November 2004 as a Research Fellow (0.6 FTE); my role includes teaching and advising on qualitative research methods. My PhD and BSc were in psychology, and I have been a social science teacher in higher and further education for about 20 years during which time I have also had a wide range of health-related research experience, both qualitative and quantitative. Broadly, I am interested in the interface(s) between the 'personal' and the 'professional' fields in a health care context. Specific interests include experiences of continuity and discontinuity in health care, the importance and characterisation of continuity of health care, patient and carer experiences of what makes health-care 'personal', children's and teenagers' experiences of health care and health-related issues, and women's experiences of maternity and sexual health care. My current research involvement is with a team working on an SDO funded study of patients' and carers' views of the importance continuity of care in primary care. I provide qualitative input to short courses and to the MSc course run by the Trent RDSU.

I am able to give advice in the following areas: