Marion Campbell

Time for some NE coastal blue 😊

NIHR RSS webinar: Better Methods Better Research (BMBR) Funding Programme

The webinar will cover the scope and aims of BMBR, features of strong applications, and experience from a recent successful applicant.

Join the webinar on March 16 at 12-1pm: teams.microsoft.com/meet/3410304...

Superb programme lined up for this year’s Critical Care Reviews Meeting… 12 of the leading critical care trials will present their results. Top science, top methodology and a deep dive into the latest evidence for clinical practice.
Registration open!
#CCR26
criticalcarereviews.com/meetings/ccr26

Aberdeen finally sees sunshine for first time since 21 January The last reported sunshine had been on 21 January - the longest sunless period since records began in 1957.

Could be worse 🤣 … you could be like us in Aberdeen!!! 21 days of it www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Advertisement for the Early Postdoctoral Fellowship by the Chief Scientist Office, featuring two researchers smiling and discussing in a laboratory. Includes the details: "This scheme is designed to build health research capacity in Scotland and as such, it provides the opportunity for both clinical and non–clinical health researchers to develop their research following successful completion of a PhD. Deadline Tuesday 10 March."

The Chief Scientist Office has opened their Early Postdoctoral Fellowships for application, providing three years of salary and consumable support to early career health researchers to enable then to develop their careers.

Apply now 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/wxa8k75h

Are you passionate about supporting the funding of high-quality methods research in health? If so, please consider applying for the role of Deputy Chair of the NIHR/MRC Better Methods Better Research funding Committee - closing date 22 Jan. See: www.nihr.ac.uk/get-involved...

3/ He established not one but 3 statistics depts at Aberdeen, BARC & Edinburgh. He later said if it wasn’t for typhoid he would have been “a rather poor schoolteacher of mathematics.”

#OTD 1917 David Finney b (d 12 Nov 2018) CBE FRS; ASA Fellow 1951; Royal Statistical Society President 1973. Pioneered statistical methods of experimental design, statistical computing, pharmacovigilance, biological assay & probit analysis. 1/3

On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me… 🎶

📊 Three key outcomes
🫀 Two boluses of bicarb
⚡ And ROSC in the BIHCA cardiac arrest trial 🎄

#CCR26
criticalcarereviews.com/meetings/ccr26

Writing Genres:
First draft: Horror
Abstract: Action thriller
Hypothesis section: Fantasy
Results section: Tragedy
Limitations section: True crime
Implications section: Satire
Grant application: Science fiction

It’s the run up to the holidays so there can only be one #MethodologyMonday topic - the scientific way to cut your Christmas cake. Published c1906 in Nature by the statistician Francis Galton 🎂🎄🔪😊 Enjoy!
galton.org/essays/1900-...

It's the 12 Days of Christmas, CCR Style!

Over the rest of December, we'll be announcing the CCR26 trials

1st up - the LOGICAL trial, investigating conservative oxygenation for the attenuation of hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy post cardiac arrest

Registration opens soon!

Doug Altman was an internationally renowned statistician who served as The BMJ’s chief statistical adviser.

Read about life and work that made this statistician a "citation millionaire"
#BMJChristmas
www.bmj.com/content/391/...

Advertisement for the Early Postdoctoral Fellowship by the Chief Scientist Office, featuring two researchers smiling and discussing in a laboratory. Includes the details: "This scheme is designed to build health research capacity in Scotland and as such, it provides the opportunity for both clinical and non–clinical health researchers to develop their research following successful completion of a PhD. Deadline Tuesday 10 March."

The Chief Scientist Office has opened their Early Postdoctoral Fellowships for application, providing three years of salary and consumable support to early career health researchers to enable then to develop their careers.

Apply now 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/wxa8k75h

Want to improve your knowledge & practice of clinical trials?

#UKCTUNetwork members offer a wide variety of learning & development opportunities covering all aspects of academic clinical research.

Find out more here: tinyurl.com/mueyhau7

#ClinicalTrials #Training

A review of stepped wedge trials has shown that while use of the design has increased rapidly over recent years, there is still a significant proportion of trials that do not account for the time effect or for the intracluster correlation 6/6
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Recent developments include “batched” designs (which allows clusters eg sites to come on in batches at different times) & staircase designs to minimise data collection burden 5/6
Batched:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Staircase:
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

The stepped wedge design can be challenging to conduct however (eg sites don’t switch as planned/drop out, the intervention can be implemented poorly etc). Detailed forward planning is needed 4/6
www.jclinepi.com/article/S089...

Karla Hemming et al wrote a useful paper describing the design and its special considerations in the BMJ 3/6
www.bmj.com/content/350/...

A stepped wedge design is a variant of the cluster trial that allows interventions to be evaluated as they are rolled out. Each cluster moves from control to intervention in a random sequence 2/6

The stepped wedge design came up in the #CCRDownUnder meeting last week so it seemed a good time to revisit the pros and cons of this design 1/6
#MethodologyMonday #128

New fully funded PhD opportunity to come and work with me at the University of Glasgow exploring the role of data-driven interventions (audit and feedback) to improve environmental sustainability of the NHS. Deadline to apply: 12th Jan 2026.

Find out more here:
www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/mvl...

The 10 year follow-up results of the TOPKAT trial of total (TKR) vs partial (PKR) knee replacement are out! Similar clinical outcomes, but PKR more cost effective.
t.co/V4O7s6MvZe

Improving health by improving trials – applying behavioural science to improve the design and delivery of clinical trials. at University of Aberdeen on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Improving health by improving trials – applying behavioural science to improve the design and delivery of clinical trials. at University of Aberdeen , listed on FindAPhD.com

One of my 2026 goals is to be more present on BlueSky! Another is to recruit a great candidate to this 4-yr PhD studentship with us at the Aberdeen Centre for Evaluation -applying behavioural science to the design and delivery of clinical trials. Please share. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Just 4 weeks to CCR Down Under 2025!

Join us to hear the results of 8 major critical care trials - in person or virtually

➡️ ImmunoSep
➡️ iRehab
➡️ CLIP II
➡️ ACTiVE
➡️ ARISE AFRICA
➡️ RSI
➡️ VITaCCA
➡️ ECMO REHAB

https://criticalcarereviews.com/meetings/ccr-down-under-2025

Beginning Nov 1924, studies on the effect of lighting on worker productivity were performed at the Western Electric Hawthorn Plant. These were the basis for the concept of the Hawthorne Effect 1/2

The work provides accessible definitions of the core elements of an estimand which will help aid understanding and should ease the use of the estimand framework across the range of stakeholders 8/8

A new paper by @suziecro.bsky.social and colleagues will help in this regard. Working with public partners, they developed a practical tool to explain the attributes of an estimand in an accessible manner 7/8
trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

However, the technical language around estimands makes it hard to discuss the concept with patients and public (and indeed with many researchers and clinicians). 6/8

Kahan et al provide a useful introduction to the estimand approach and to the different terms/approaches used: 5/8
www.bmj.com/content/384/...