Professor Amanda Farrin

Profile

I am  Professor of Clinical Trials and Evaluation of Complex Interventions at the Clinical Trials Research Unit (CTRU) within the Leeds Institute for Clinical Trials Research.

I have worked as a medical statistician for over 25 years with posts in both academia and the NHS, together with a period of statistical consultancy work in the pharmaceutical industry. During the last 20 years, I have worked in an academic clinical trial environment and joined the CTRU in 2004.

As Director of Complex Interventions Division at CTRU, I take strategic and methodological leadership for an extensive portfolio of NIHR- and charity-funded trials, studies and programmes, developing and evaluating complex health and social care interventions in NHS priority areas.  Trials include those in stroke; elderly care (frailty, delirium, dementia); mental health (particularly self-harm), diet & obesity, cancer, primary care, care homes, and end-of-life & palliative care, with a focus across all clinical areas on evaluating behaviour change interventions.  

Responsibilities

• Director of Complex Interventions Division

Research interests

My reseach portfolio includes multi-centre phase III trials, early phase research, such as pilots, feasibilty studies and intervention development, epidemiological studies and eveidence synthesis.  I have designed a wide range of complex randomised trials, including parallel group, cluster randomised, factorial, fractional factorial and balanced incomplete block designs, multi-arm, multi stage (MAMS), feasibility & pilot studies, and (multiple) interrupted time series.

My methodological research interests encompass a broad range of trial methodology and application of rigorous and innovative methods to complex intervention trials. I direct an active programme of methodological research investigating real-world issues encountered during the design, implementation or analysis of complex intervention evaluations.  This includes:

• design and analysis of cluster randomised trials,
• methodological advances in early-phase complex intervention trial designs,
• use of routine data in the design, implementation and analysis of trials,
• design of process evaluations, including methods for maximising, measuring and monitoring intervnetion fidelity.

Qualifications

• 1992 MSc Statistics, University of Sheffield
• 1990 BSc (Hons) Mathematics with Accounting, University of Durham

Professional memberships

• Society for Clinical Trials

Research groups and institutes

• Leeds Institute of Clinical Trials Research
• Complex interventions
• Complex Interventions Division