Professor Stephen Walters
BSc, PGCE, MSc, PhD, CStat.
School of Medicine and Population Health
Professor of Medical Statistics and Clinical Trials
+44 114 222 0730
Full contact details
School of Medicine and Population Health
Regent Court (ScHARR)
30 Regent Street
Sheffield
S1 4DA
- Profile
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I graduated with a degree in Mathematics and Economics. This was followed by a PGCE and an MSc in Medical Statistics and Information Technology. My PhD involved using computer intensive statistical methods for estimating sample sizes and analysing quality of life outcomes. I joined ScHARR in January 1995. I was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2003; Reader in 2008 and to a Personal Chair in 2009. I was the first Director of the Design, Trials and Statistics section in ScHARR from 2012-18.
I am a Chartered Statistician with over 27 years¡¯ experience of health services research and technology assessment. The main focus of my research has been in the design, conduct, analysis, and reporting of trials of complex interventions; and the design, assessment, analysis and interpretation of patient reported outcomes in clinical trials. I work with clinicians from a variety of backgrounds to develop pragmatic clinical trial designs to capture the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a variety of health technologies. I have been co-investigator for more than 30 randomised controlled trials.
From 2018 to 2022 I was National Institute for Health Âé¶¹ÊÓÆµ (NIHR) Senior Investigator. I have been a member of the NIHR Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Clinical Evaluation and Trials Board (2011-17) and the East Midlands Regional Funding Committee for the NIHR Âé¶¹ÊÓÆµ for Patient Benefit Pogramme (2011-2012). I have also been a member of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Public Health Interventions Advisory Committee (2008-2013).
I have co-authored over 330 publications (including 200 in refereed journals and 5 books, with over 25,000 copies sold). The majority of my peer-reviewed journal articles have been applied research, with the emphasis on the evaluation of new services. I have been a co-applicant, statistical advisor and collaborator on 74 funded Health Service Âé¶¹ÊÓÆµ projectswith a total income value of ?49.1 million.
- Âé¶¹ÊÓÆµ interests
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- Design, conduct, analysis, and reporting of pragmatic trials of complex interventions.
- Design, assessment, analysis and interpretation of studies with Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) outcome measures. See ''.
- Health Services Âé¶¹ÊÓÆµ and Technology Assessment.
- Cluster RCTs and clustering by health professional in individually randomised trials.
- Study design and sample size determination.
- Publications
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Featured publications
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Books
Journal articles
Chapters
Conference proceedings papers
Posters
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- Âé¶¹ÊÓÆµ group
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PhD Students
- Phillips Edomwonyi Obasohan
- Louisa Robinson
- Yirui Qian
- Bright Offorha
- Nikki Totton
- Grants
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- FIRST: Prospective randomised controlled trial comparing three splints for finger flexor tendon repairs. Co-applicant. NIHR HTA Programme. (2022-2025). ?1,151,006.
- MEErKAT: MEsenteric Excision and Kono-s Anastomosis Trial. Co-applicant. NIHR HTA Programme. (2021-2026). ?1,657,876.
- SPACES: Supporting Physical and Activity through Co-production in people with Severe Mental Illness. Co-applicant. NIHR PGfAR Programme. (2021-2027). ?2,525,160.
- BASIS: Bracing Adolescent Idiopathic ScoliosIS Study night-time versus full-time bracing in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Co-applicant. NIHR HTA Programme. (2021-2031). ?2,457,724.
- HELP Infertility? (Hysteroscopic Excision of Leiomyoma and Polyp in Infertility): two randomised controlled trials. Co-applicant. NIHR HTA Programme. (2020-2028). ?2,050,304.
- MATTS: Major trauma Triage Tool Study. Co-applicant. NIHR HTA Programme. (2018-2022). ?1,211,034.
- STAR-MS: Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation versus Alemtuzumab in Relapsing Remitting MS. Co-applicant. NIHR EME Programme. (2019-2024) ?2,348,027.
- Investigating socioeconomic and geographical disparities in vascular surgery rates and outcomes in England. Co-applicant. NIHR PGfAR Programme. (2020-2022) ?145,049.
- NIHR Senior Investigator Award. Principal investigator. NIHR. (2018-2022) ?60,000.
- Teaching interests
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I have developed several courses on teaching medical statistics to medical and health science students, clinicians and allied health professionals. I have also co-authored four textbooks: 'Medical Statistics: A Textbook for the Health Sciences 5th edition' 'Medical Statistics: A Textbook for the Health Sciences 4th edition; 'How to Display Data' and 'How to Design, Analyse and Report Cluster Randomised Trials in Medicine and Health Related Âé¶¹ÊÓÆµ'.
I co-ordinate and teach on HAR6035 'An Introduction to Statistics and Critical Appraisal' module on the Master of Public Health programme and contribute to the distance learning version (HAR6042).
- Professional activities and memberships
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- Independent statistician member on several data and safety monitoring committees
- Member of the NIHR Programme Grants for Applied Âé¶¹ÊÓÆµ Committee
- Member of the NIHR Pre-doctoral Fellowships Selection Committee
- Member of the Irish Health Âé¶¹ÊÓÆµ Board