Dr Alice Sitch PhD, MSc, BSc (Hons), PCAP, CStat, FHEA

Institute of Applied Health Research
Senior Lecturer in Biostatistics

Contact details

Telephone: +44 (0)121 414 4428
Email: a.j.sitch@bham.ac.uk
Twitter: @alicesitch

Address: Public Health Building
Institute of Applied Health Research
College of Medical and Dental Sciences
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Alice Sitch is a Senior Lecturer working in the Institute of Applied Health Research and a member of the Biostatistics, Evidence Synthesis and Test Evaluation (BESaTE) research group.

Since joining the University in 2009, Alice has become involved in many exciting projects allowing her to collaborate with others in the BESaTE team and many other researchers at the University of Birmingham and beyond.

Alice’s main research interests are in the area of designing and evaluating monitoring tests and studies of biological variability. Alice is the deputy lead for the cross-cutting diagnostics and biomarkers theme of the Birmingham NIHR Biomedical Research Centre.

Qualifications

PhD in Medical Statistics, University of Birmingham, 2019
Post-graduate certificate in Academic Practice, University of Birmingham, 2017
MSc in Statistics, University of Sheffield, 2009
BSc (Hons) in Mathematics, University of Sheffield, 2008
Royal Statistical Society Chartered Statistician
Fellow of Higher Education Academy

Biography

Alice began working with the Biostatistics group within the Institute of Applied Health Research at the University of Birmingham as a Research Fellow in October 2009 and later became a Lecturer in Medical Statistics.

Alice is involved with many exciting research projects. Her work is diverse, covering methodological problems, test research and a variety of public health issues. The focus of her research is test evaluation, specifically the use of tests to monitor progressive and recurrent disease and studies of biological variability.

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 and leads the statistics module on the Medicine and Surgery (MBChB) Graduate Entry Course (GEC).

Teaching

Public Health MPH —Epidemiology, Statistics and Research Methods (ESRM), Practical Epidemiology and Statistics (PEaS), and Advanced Statistical Methods.
Medicine and Surgery (MBChB) Graduate Entry Course (GEC) and Medicine and Surgery (MBChB)—Medical Statistics module.
Undergraduate Mathematics: Medical Statistics

Research

The focus of Alice’s research is the use of repeated testing to monitor disease progression or recurrence and the use of biological variability studies to provide evidence to guide the use of monitoring tests.

Her work in the area of monitoring stems from her involvement 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. Alice is also involved in a primary study (eGFR-C) looking at estimation using creatinine and cystatin C for monitoring disease progression in patients with stage 3 chronic kidney disease.

In other test evaluation work, Alice is the study statistician for the NIHR HTA study Prognostic Value of Interferon Gamma Release Assays in predicting active tuberculosis among individuals with, or at risk of, latent tuberculosis infection (PREDICT); the Wellcome Trust Innovation Challenge Fund supported study Real-time Adaptive Predictive Indicator of Deterioration (RAPID) which uses Formula One technology to monitor children in intensive care in real time; and, two NIHR Research for Patient Benefit funded pilot studies investigating home monitoring of cystic fibrosis and an alert system for the early detection of acute kidney injury.

Through collaboration with other academics and clinicians, Alice has been part of many research projects. These include the NIHR global project in COPD Breathe Well, a MRC funded project Pathfinder, and a NIHR PHR funded project ABA.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Pan, Z, Dickens, A, Chi, C, Kong, X, Enocson, A, Adab, P, Cheng, KK, Sitch, A, Jowett, S & Jordan, R 2020, 'A study to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of different screening strategies for identifying undiagnosed COPD amongst residents (≥40 years) in four cities in China: protocol for a multicenter cross-sectional study. On behalf of the Breathe Well group', BMJ open.

Dickens, A, Fitzmaurice, D, Adab, P, Sitch, A, Riley, RD, Enocson, A & Jordan, R 2020, 'Accuracy of Vitalograph lung monitor as a screening test for COPD in primary care', NPJ Primary Care Respiratory Medicine, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41533-019-0158-2

Sitch, A & Middleton, L 2020, 'Are these means really different? Statistical testing for continuous data', BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, vol. 127, no. 6, pp. 749. https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-0528.15569

Jones, R, Barratt, J, Brettell, E, Cockwell, P, Dalton, RN, Deeks, J, Eaglestone, G, Pellatt-Higgins, T, Kalra, P, Khunti, K, Morris, F, Ottridge, R, Sitch, A, Stevens, PE, Sharpe, CC, Sutton, A, Taal, MW & Lamb, EJ 2020, 'Biological variation of cardiac troponins in chronic kidney disease', Annals of Clinical Biochemistry.

Adab, P, Jordan, R, Fitzmaurice, D, Ayres, J, Cheng, KK, Cooper, B, Daley, A, Dickens, A, Enocson, A, Greenfield, S, Haroon, S, Jolly, K, Jowett, S, Lambe, T, Martin, J, Miller, M, Rai, K, Riley, RD, Sadhra, S, Sitch, A, Siebert, S, Stockley, RA & Turner, A 2020, 'Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in primary care; from case finding to improving patient outcomes: the Birmingham Lung Improvement Studies (BLISS) research programme', ERO .

Gjorgjievski, D, Ristovska, R, Stavrikj, K, Farley, A, Adab, P, Adams, R, Dickens, A, Enocson, A, Stanoevski, G, Gale, N, Jowett, S, Rai, K, Sitch, A, Stamenova, A, Krstevska, E & Jordan, R 2020, 'Effectiveness of combining feedback about lung age or exhaled carbon monoxide levels with Very Brief Advice (VBA) and support for smoking cessation in primary care compared to giving VBA and support alone – protocol for a randomized controlled trial within the Breathe Well research program', Open Access Macedonian Journal of Medical Sciences, vol. 8, no. E, pp. 28-36. https://doi.org/10.3889/oamjms.2020.4519

Sitch, A 2020, 'Help, my data are skewed: Statistical testing for skewed data', BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, vol. 127, no. 7, pp. 812. https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-0528.15571

Middleton, L & Sitch, A 2020, 'How to determine if a treatment works for some people but not for others? Testing for sub-group effects', BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, vol. 127, no. 8, pp. 1015-1015. https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-0528.15852

Sitch, A 2020, 'Simply the best, better than all the rest? Interpreting statistical tests of superiority', BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, vol. 127, no. 6, pp. 748. https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-0528.15544

Sitch, A 2020, 'Six of one, half a dozen of the other? Testing differences in proportions', BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, vol. 127, no. 7, pp. 811. https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-0528.15570

Webb, S, Sitch, A & MacArthur, C 2020, 'The impact of mode of subsequent birth after obstetric anal sphincter injury on bowel function and related quality of life: a cohort study', International Urogynecology Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00192-020-04234-3

Keene , SJ, Adab, P, de Vries, F, Franssen, FME, Sitch, A, Martin, J, Marshall, T & Jordan, R 2020, 'The stability of the ADO score among UK COPD patients from The Health Improvement Network', ERJ Open Research.

Bancos, I, Taylor, A, Chortis, V, Sitch, A, Jenkinson, C, Davidge-Pitts, C, Lang, K, Tsagarakis, S, Macech, M, Riester, A, Deutschbein, T, Pupovac, I, Kienitz, T, Prete, A, Papathomas, T, Gilligan, L, Bancos, C, Reimondo, G, Haissaguerre, M, Marina, L, Grytaas, M, Sajwani, A, Langton, K, Ivison, H, Shackleton, C, Erickson, D, Asia, M, Palimeri, S, Kondracka, A, Spyroglou, A, Ronchi, C, Simunov, B, Delivanis, D, Sutcliffe, RP, Tsirou, I, Bednarczuk, T, Reincke, M, Burger-Stritt, S, Feelders, R, Canu, L, Haak, H, Eisenhofer, G, Dennedy, MC, Ueland, G, Ivovic, M, Tabarin, A, Terzolo, M, Quinkler, M, Kastelan, D, Fassnacht, M, Beuschlein, F, Ambroziak, U, Vassiliadi, D, O'reilly, M, Young, WF, Biehl, M, Deeks, J & Arlt, W 2020, 'Urine steroid metabolomics for the differential diagnosis of adrenal incidentalomas: a prospective test validation study', The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology.