Dr Kelly Handley BSc (Hons), PhD, CStat

Institute of Applied Health Research
Senior Medical Statistician

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 415 9118
Email
k.handley@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit (BCTU)
Institute of Applied Health Research
Public Health Building

Kelly Handley is a Senior Medical Statistician at the Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit (BCTU) in the Institute of Applied Health Research.

Kelly is interested in the design, conduct and analysis of large scale late phase randomised controlled clinical trials. She is the senior statistician on a wide variety of clinical trials in the areas of colorectal cancer, surgery, hepatology and cardiology, assessing medical, surgical and complex interventions in both adults and children.

Her research has been published in various high impact scientific journals (NEJM, Lancet, BMJ) and she is a co-applicant on a number of grants funded by the National Institute for Health Research funding streams and by national charities (including Cancer Research UK and British Heart Foundation).

Qualifications

  • Chartered Statistician (CStat) and Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, 2014
  • PhD in Mathematics, University of Nottingham, 2007
  • BSc (Hons) in Mathematics, University of Nottingham, 2003

Biography

Kelly graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2003 with a BSc (Hons) degree in Mathematics. She then continued her studies at the University of Nottingham and completed a PhD in Mathematics in 2007, supervised by Professor Ian Dryden and Professor William Browne.  

After finishing her PhD, Kelly joined the Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit (BCTU) at the University of Birmingham as a Trainee Medical Statistician. She progressed to the role of Senior Medical Statistician in 2015.

Teaching

Research

Kelly is the senior statistician on a wide variety of clinical trials in the areas of colorectal cancer, surgery, hepatology, and cardiology, assessing medical, surgical and complex interventions in both adults and children. 

Current trial work includes:

  • CALIBRE – Carvedilol versus variceal band ligation in primary prevention of variceal bleeding in liver cirrhosis
  • CReST 2 – Uncovered vs covered endoluminal stenting in the acute management of obstructing colorectal cancer in the palliative setting
  • DESTINY – del Nido versus St. Thomas’ blood cardioplegia: a pragmatic, multi-centre randomised controlled trial in young children undergoing cardiac surgery in the UK & Ireland
  • FOxTROT – A randomised trial assessing whether preoperative chemotherapy and/or an anti-EGFR monoclonal antibody improve outcome in high-risk operable colon cancer
  • ROCSS – Reinforcement of Closure of Stoma Site. A randomised controlled trial of reinforcement of closure of stoma site using a biological mesh
  • ROSSINI 2 – Reduction Of Surgical Site Infection using several Novel Interventions

Research groups and Centres: Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit

Other activities

  • Statistical reviewer for the National Institute for Health Research (HTA, EME, RfPB) and Arthritis Research UK funding bodies
  • Independent statistician on several Trial Steering and Data Monitoring Committees contributing to the oversight and direction of externally run clinical trials.

Publications

Key publications:

Reinforcement of Closure of Stoma Site (ROCSS) Collaborative and West Midlands Research Collaborative. Prophylactic biological mesh reinforcement versus standard closure of stoma site (ROCSS): a multicentre, randomised controlled trial. Lancet 2020. 395:417-26 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)32637-6/fulltext

Jayne DG, Scholefield J, Tolan D, Gray R, Edlin R, Hulme CT, Sutton AJ, Handley K, Hewitt CA, Kaur M, Magill L. Anal fistula plug versus surgeon's preference for surgery for trans-sphincteric anal fistula: the FIAT RCT. Health Technol Assess 2019;23(21) https://www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/hta/hta23210#/abstract

RESPITE Trial Collaborative Group. Intravenous remifentanil patient-controlled analgesia versus intramuscular pethidine for pain relief in labour (RESPITE): an open-label, multicentre, randomised controlled trial. The Lancet. 2018 Aug 25;392(10148):662-672 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673618316131?via%3Dihub

The DREAMS Trial Collaborators and the West Midlands Research Collaborative. Dexamethasone Reduces Emesis after Major Gastrointestinal Surgery (DREAMS Trial). BMJ 2017. 357:j1455. https://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j1455

ROCSS Collaborative and the West Midlands Research Collaborative. Feasibility study from a randomised controlled trial of standard closure of stoma site versus biologic mesh reinforcement. Colorectal Disease 2016. 18(9): 889-896.  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/codi.13310

FOxTROT Collaborative Group, Feasibility of preoperative chemotherapy for locally advanced, operable colon cancer: the pilot phase of a randomised controlled trial. Lancet Oncology 2012. 13(11): 1152-116 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(12)70348-0/fulltext

The ASTRAL Investigators, Wheatley K, Ives N, Gray R, Kalra PA, Moss JG, Baigent C, Carr S, Chalmers N, Eadington D, Hamilton G, Lipkin G, Nicholson A, Scoble J. Revascularization versus medical therapy for renal-artery stenosis. N Engl J Med. 2009;361(20):1953-62. https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa0905368?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3dwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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