Alice entered higher education at the University of Sheffield in September 2005. After graduating with a BSc (Hons) in 2008, Alice chose to deviate from pure mathematics and completed an MSc in Statistics in 2009. After developing an interest in Medical Statistics throughout her studies in Sheffield, Alice began working for the Biostatistics group within the department of Public Health, Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Birmingham as a Research Fellow in October 2009.
Alice has been involved in a myriad of exciting research projects. Her work is diverse, covering methodological problems, test research and a variety of public health issues.
In her role as a front line advisor for the Research Design Service, Alice offers specialist statistical advice to researchers in the local area looking to obtain funding, particularly NHS researchers. As an FLA, Alice is exposed to many different types of statistical problems and challenges.
Alice enjoys teaching and interacting with students, with her responsibilities spanning many courses. Predominately, her teaching duties involve communicating statistical ideas to a non-statistical audience. Alice is involved with teaching both undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Alice is involved with the test research carried out by the Biostatistics group. Alice is involved in the methodology work stream of the NIHR programme grant ‘Evaluating the benefits for patients and the NHS of new and existing biological fluid biomarkers in liver and renal disease’, where she is working on a simulation project, striving to identify an optimal monitoring strategy. Alice is also working, along with Jon Deeks, as the trial statistician for the NIHR HTA programme grant ‘Prognostic Value of Interferon Gamma Release Assays in predicting active tuberculosis among individuals with, or at risk of, latent tuberculosis infection (PREDICT)’.
Alice has been involved, and continues to be involved, in methodological research with other members of the Biostatistics group. At present, this research has primarily focused on cluster sample size calculations.
Through collaboration with other members of the department, Alice has been part of many public health projects. The main themes for this ongoing work are: obesity in school aged children, medical student population diversity, TB culture confirmation and the evaluation of health care interventions.
Wheeler, I., Price, C., Sitch, A., Banda, P., Kellett, J., Nyirenda, M., Rylance, J., (2013), Early warning scores generated in developed healthcare settings are not sufficient at predicting early mortality in Blantyre, Malawi: a prospective cohort study. PLoS One. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0059830
Frew E.J., Bhatti M., Win K., Sitch A., Lyon A., Pallan M., Adab P., (2012), Cost-effectiveness of a community-based physical activity programme for adults (Be Active) in the UK: an economic analysis within a natural experiment. Br J Sports Med. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2012-091202
Wright R.L., Peters D.M., Robinson P.D., Sitch A.J., Watt T.N., Hollands M.A., (2012), Differences in axial segment reorientation during standing turns predict multiple falls in older adults., Gait Posture. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gaitpost.2012.05.013
Hemming, K., Girling, A.J., Sitch, A.J., Marsh, J., Lilford, R.J., (2011), Sample size calculations for cluster randomised controlled trials with a fixed number of clusters., BMC Med Res Methodol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-11-102
Mathers, J., Sitch, A., Marsh, J.L., Parry, J., (2011), Widening access to medical education for under-represented socioeconomic groups: population based cross sectional analysis of UK data, 2002-6., BMJ. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.d918
Thomas, M., Sitch, A., Dowswell, G., (2011), The initial development and assessment of an automatic alert warning of acute kidney injury., Nephrol Dial Transplant. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ndt/gfq710