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Kate Best

  • Position: Associate Professor in Applied Statistics
  • Areas of expertise: Medical Statistics; Epidemiology; Routine data, Ageing and Frailty
  • Email: K.E.Best@leeds.ac.uk
  • Location: Level 10 Worsley Building
  • Website: Googlescholar | ORCID

Profile

I am a statistican based in the Academic Unit of Ageing and Stroke Research (AUASR), with a background in Medical Statistics and Epidemiology. I have particular expertise in the acquisition, management and analysis of large, linked routine health data sets derived from primary, secondary and social care.

Research interests

I am co-applicant and methodological lead for a portfolio of quantitiative ageing-related related research, with a focus on frailty as a particularly problematic expression of later life multimorbidity, and medicines optimisation:

  • Economic inactivity, arthritis & depression: who, why & how to respond. The Nuffield Foundation. £691,909. 1/2026-12/2028

  • Optimising transient ischaemic attack (TIA) pathways to reduce ethnicity-based inequalities. NIHR HSDR. £892,766. 4/2025-5/2028.

  • Designing and pilot testing an anticholinergic medication index clinical decision support system (ACMICS) for use in hospitals to support safer prescribing for older people at risk of medication-related harm. £249,991. 5/2025-4/2027

  • PREDICT: pragmatic recalibration and evaluation of drift in clinical tools. NIHR RfPb. £250,937. 1/2025-8/2026.

  • Team Morebility: optimising medications, mobility and mental health. NIHR Team Science Development award. £100,000. 1/2025-3/2026.

  • Well-being in later life in Bradford. The Nuffield Foundation. £892,518. 10/2024-7/2028

  • NIHR Leeds Biomedical Research Centre, Musculoskeletal Theme. National Institute for Health Research. £600k (within Musculoskeletal theme). 12/2022 - 11/2027

  • Development of methods to identify digitally excluded older people, and tailoring of interventions to meet their digital needs. The Dunhill Medical Trust. £412,253. 4/23-2/25
  • Optimising Structured Medication Reviews for Older People with Severe Frailty and Care Home Residents to Reduce Overprescribing and Associated Inequalities. NIHR HS&DR. £1,016,222. 1/24-12/26
  • Improving care for older people with frailty electronic Frailty index 2 development and validation. NIHR ARC-YH £9,000,000, 10/19-9/24
  • Development of a learning system to optimise anticholinergic medication prescribing for older people living with frailty. Health Data Research UK (UKRI/NIHR/Wellcome). £1,200,000 (part of £3,400,000 HDRUK North award). 07/20 - 03/23

Qualifications

  • PhD Epidemiology, Newcastle University
  • MSc in Medical Statistics, University of Leicester, 2010
  • BSc in Maths & Stats, University of York

Student education

Module lead for the “Capturing and Handling Data” module on the Postgraduate Programme in Health Research. 

Research groups and institutes

  • Academic Unit for Ageing and Stroke Research
  • Leeds Institute of Health Sciences
<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>We welcome enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>