Dr Clare P Herd PhD

• PhD 2010
• MChem 2005

Clare’s background is in chemistry, and she completed her undergraduate degree in 2005, followed by a PhD in analytical chemistry from the University of Leeds under the supervision of Dr Julie Fisher. Her doctoral research focused on the non‑duplex folding states of the telomeric region of human DNA.

She has worked as a systematic reviewer for the past fourteen years. Prior to her current focus, Clare spent a decade (2011–2021) at the University of Birmingham conducting systematic reviews of the effectiveness of interventions across a broad range of clinical areas, most notably Parkinson’s disease, migraine, and atrial fibrillation, including authorship of several Cochrane reviews.

As a freelance information specialist and systematic reviewer, she has contributed to projects including reviews of HIV and heart disease treatments, acted as an information specialist for national research priority partnerships, and collaborated with the Gates Foundation and the World Health Organization on rapid reviews.

She is currently specialising in diagnostic and prognostic test evaluation methods. Her work involves conducting systematic literature searches to identify evidence used to assess existing methodologies and to develop robust frameworks for test evaluation.

• Lecturing and facilitating on the Systematic review and evidence synthesis module of the MPH course
• Lecturing and facilitating on the STMA DTA CPD course
• MBChB Year 1 DPS AAAA Systematic Reviews small group teaching

Research Themes

Parkinson Disease, Migraine, Systematic Reviews, Clinical Trials.

Research Activity

Migraine: Currently working on reviewing the evidence for botulinum toxin for migraine prophylaxis.
Parkinson’s disease: Currently working on reviewing the evidence for anti-depressive therapies for people with Parkinson’s disease. Recent work includes reviews of physiotherapy and of speech and language therapy interventions for people with Parkinson’s disease.