Dr Lane received a BSc (Hons) in Psychology from the University of Liverpool in 1995. She went on to study for a PhD at the University of Birmingham in 1996. Following the award of her PhD, she worked as an Academic Fellow and Honorary Non-Clinical Lecturer in the University Department of Medicine, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, until joining the Department of Cardiovascular and Respiratory Sciences in February 2010.
Her main research interest is atrial fibrillation (AF), particularly how AF affects quality of life and psychological well-being, and patient perceptions’ of the condition. She is currently the principal investigator for a randomised controlled trial [TREAT- ISCRTN93952605] comparing intensive education with usual care in AF patients newly referred for oral anticoagulation (OAC), to examine the impact of education on patients’ knowledge and perceptions of AF and its treatment, and anticoagulation control. She is also involved in qualitative research examining the patients’ experience of AF and OAC therapy, and physicians’ attitudes to AF and OAC prescription. In collaboration with colleagues, she has been integral in refining the risk stratification of AF patients requiring OAC therapy based on their bleeding and stroke risk, and has helped to derive and validate stroke (CHA2DS2-VASc) and bleeding (HAS-BLED) risk schemas which are widely used both nationally and internationally in clinical practice. She is also the principal investigator for an NIHR Health Technology Assessment systematic review of the effects of combination antithrombotic therapy on vascular events in high-risk (post acute coronary syndromes and/or stent implantation) AF patients. Her background is in health psychology and cardiovascular epidemiology and other research interests include hypertension, heart failure, cardiac rehabilitation, and ethnic differences in cardiovascular disease.
RESEARCH THEMES
Atrial fibrillation, Stroke prevention, Stroke risk stratification, Bleeding risk with anticoagulation, Health Psychology, Evidence synthesis
The main emphasis of her work over the last seven years has been atrial fibrillation, with two major themes: bleeding and stroke risk stratification and patient-centred research. Prior to this her research interests included cardiovascular epidemiology particularly hypertension, ethnic differences in cardiovascular disease, and psychological responses to myocardial infarction and heart failure.
RESEARCH ACTIVITY
Bleeding risk stratification
Reducing the risk of bleeding-related complications for atrial fibrillation (AF) patients requiring oral anticoagulation to prevent stroke is one Dr Lane’s main interests. In collaboration with national and international colleagues she has helped to identify bleeding risk factors among AF patients and has derived a novel bleeding risk score. The HAS-BLED schema has been incorporated into international guidelines for the management of atrial fibrillation. In addition, her ongoing work is validating the HAS-BLED schema in other AF cohorts and seeking to identify novel blood biomarkers which may further refine bleeding risk in the AF population.
Stroke risk stratification
She has also been involved in identifying ‘new’ risk factors for stroke among AF patients and in conjunction with colleagues she has helped to refine stroke risk assessment, by devising the CHA2DS2-VASc schema. Her research has involved comparison of CHA2DS2-VASc with other contemporary stroke risk schemas in different cohorts of AF patients. This has lead to the incorporation of the CHA2DS2-VASc schema into international guidelines for the management of AF patients.
Patient-centred research
One of her major interests is the patient and how they adapt to diseases/illnesses. Most recently, her research has focussed on AF patients. Patient perceptions and understanding of disease and its treatment, and identification of patient barriers to treatment are fundamental to their acceptance and adherence to therapy, which is particularly important in chronic treatments which also require lifestyle modification, such as AF patients requiring lifelong oral anticoagulation therapy. Recent research has employed both quantitative and qualitative methodology to explore the patient experience of AF and treatment. She is the lead investigator for an ongoing randomised controlled trial comparing an educational and behavioural intervention, based on psychological theory, with usual care to examine the impact of education on patients’ knowledge and perceptions of AF and its treatment, and anticoagulation control. Qualitative research is examining the patients’ experience of AF and OAC therapy, and physicians’ attitudes to AF and OAC prescription. Previously, she has investigated psychological responses to myocardial infarction and heart failure.
Evidence synthesis
She is the principal investigator for an NIHR Health Technology Assessment funded systematic review of the effects of combination antithrombotic therapy on vascular events in high-risk (post acute coronary syndromes and/or stent implantation) AF patients. She is also the co-applicant of another NIHR Health Technology Assessment funded systematic review on the diagnostic and prognostic utility of tests currently available for the detection of aspirin resistance in patients with established cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease.
Lip, G.Y.H., Frison, L., Halperin, J.L, Lane, D.A., (2011). Comparative validation of a novel risk score [HAS-BLED] for predicting bleeding risk in anticoagulated patients with atrial fibrillation. J Am Coll Cardiol, 57:173-80.
van Staa, T.P., Setakis, E., Di Tanna, G.L., Lane, D.A., Lip, G.Y.H., (2011). A comparison of risk stratification schema for stroke in 79,884 atrial fibrillation patients in general practice. J Thromb Haemost,9:39-48.
Poli, D., Lip, G.Y.H., Antonucci, E., Grifoni, E., Lane, D.A., (2011). Stroke risk stratification in a “real-world” elderly anticoagulated atrial fibrillation population. J Cardiovasc Electrophysiol, 22:25-30.
Marinigh, R., Lip, G.Y.H., Lane, D.A., (2010). Age as a risk factor for stroke in atrial fibrillation patients: Implications for thromboprophylaxis. J Am Coll Cardiol, 56:827-837.
Lip, G.Y.H., Frison, L., Halperin, J.L., Lane, D.A., (2010). Identifying patients at high-risk of stroke despite anticoagulation: A comparison of contemporary stroke risk stratification schemes in an anticoagulated atrial fibrillation cohort. Stroke, 41:2731-8.
Pisters, R., Lane, D.A., Nieuwlaat, R., de Vos, C.B., Crijns, H.J.G.M., Lip, G.Y.H., (2010). A novel user-friendly score to assess one-year risk of major bleeding in atrial fibrillation patients: The Euro Heart Survey. Chest, 138: 1093-100.
Lip, G.Y.H., Nieuwlaat, R., Lane, D.A., Pisters, R., Crijns, H.J.G.M., (2010). A simple, new risk factor based approach to refining clinical risk stratification for predicting stroke and thromboembolism in atrial fibrillation: The Euro Heart Survey on Atrial Fibrillation. Chest, 137:263-72.
Smith DE, Borg-Xuereb C, Pattison HM, Lip GYH, Lane DA. (2010) Trial of an educational intervention on patients’ knowledge of atrial fibrillation and anticoagulation therapy, INR control, and outcomes of treatment with warfarin (TREAT). BMC Cardiovascular Disorders 10:21.