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

Dr Alice Sitch

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
View my research portal
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 and Test Evaluation Research Group (TERG) within the Institute of Applied Health Research at the University of Birmingham as a Research Fellow in October 2009 and later became a Lecturer and then a Senior Lecturer.  

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 is the biostatistics team teaching lead. She is involved with teaching both undergraduate and postgraduate students and leads the statistics module on the Medicine and Surgery (MBChB) Traditional and Graduate Entry Course (GEC).

Teaching

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; and a study funded by the Scar Free Foundation evaluating the variability of tests measuring scarring. Alice supervises PhD Students conducting research in related areas, particularly through her work with the NIHR Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).

In other test evaluation work, Alice was 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 EURINE-ACT study which was a large prospective test evaluation study in adrenal carcinoma; the Wellcome Trust Innovation Challenge Fund supported study Real-time Adaptive Predictive Indicator of Deterioration (RAPID) which used Formula One technology to monitor children in intensive care in real time; and, two NIHR Research for Patient Benefit funded pilot studies that investigated 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, the NIHR Programme Grant Birmingham Lung Improvement StudieS, and NIHR PHR funded projects ABA and FUEL.

Alice is a West Midlands NIHR Research for Patient Benefit funding panel member. Alice is an associate editor for the Journals Trials and the European Journal of Endocrinology.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Pan, Z, Dickens, A, Chi, C, Kong, X, Enocson, A, Cooper, B, Adab, P, Cheng, KK, Sitch, A, Jowett, S, Adams, R, Correia-de-Sousa, J, Farley, A, Gale, N, Jolly, K, Maglakelidze , M, Maglakelidze , T, Martins , S, Stavrikj, K, Stelmach , R, Turner, A, Williams, S & Jordan, R 2021, 'Accuracy and cost-effectiveness of different screening strategies for identifying undiagnosed COPD among primary care patients (≥40 years) in China: a cross-sectional screening test accuracy study. Findings from the Breathe Well group', BMJ open.

Fabritz, L, Crijns, HJGM, Guasch, E, Goette, A, Hausler, K, Kotecha, D, Lewalter, T, Meyer, CG, Potpara, TS, Rienstra, M, B Schnabel, R, Willems, S, Breithardt, G, Camm, AJ, Chan, A, Chua, WWL, De Melis, M, Dimopoulou, C, Dobrev, D, Easter, C, Eckardt, L, Haase, D, Hatem, S, Healey, JS, Heijman, J, Hohnloser, SH, Huebner, T, Saeed Ilyas, B, Isaacs, A, Kutschka, I, Leclercq, C, Lip, GYH, Marinelli, EA, Merino, JL, Mont, L, Nabauer, M, Oldgren, J, Pürerfellner, H, Ravens, U, Savelieva, I, Sinner, MF, Sitch, A, Smolnik, R, Steffel, J, Stein, K, Stoll, M, Svennberg, E, Thomas, D, Van Gelder, IC, Vardar, B, Wakili, R, Wieloch, M, Zeemering, S, Ziegler, P, Heidbuchel, H, Hindricks, G, Schotten, U & Kirchhof, P 2021, 'Dynamic risk assessment to improve quality of care in patients with atrial fibrillation: the 7th AFNET/EHRA Consensus Conference', EP Europace, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 329–344. https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euaa279

Gooden, T, Gustafsson , L, Lu , F, Rickard, F, Sitch, A, Cummins, C, Manneh, K, Wilson, A, MacArthur, C & Manaseki-Holland, S 2021, 'Facilitating better postnatal care with women-held documents in The Gambia: a mixed-methods study', BMC pregnancy and childbirth, vol. 21, no. 1, 479. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-021-03902-6

Harris, IM, Mcneilly, H, Benamer, H, Ward, DJ, Sitch, AJ & Parry, J 2021, 'Factors affecting consultant attitudes to undertaking undergraduate medical student teaching in the UK: a systematic review', BMJ open, vol. 11, no. 1, e042653. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042653

Bunting, K, Gill, S, Sitch, A, Mehta, S, O'Connor, K, Lip, G, Kirchhof, P, Strauss , VY, Rahimi, K, Camm, AJ, Stanbury, M, Griffith, M, Townend, J, Gkoutos, G, Karwath, A, Steeds, R & Kotecha, D 2021, 'Improving the diagnosis of heart failure in patients with atrial fibrillation', Heart, vol. 107, no. 11, pp. 902-908. https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2020-318557

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', NIHR Journals Library. <https://www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/#/>

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

Comment/debate

Chortis, V, Sitch, AJ, Bancos, I, Prete, A, Taylor, AE, Biehl, M, Deeks, JJ & Arlt, W 2021, 'Comment on "A Modern Assessment of Cancer Risk in Adrenal Incidentalomas: Analysis of 2219 Patients" by Kahramangil B et al', Annals of surgery. https://doi.org/10.1097/SLA.0000000000004804

Raffle, A, Taylor-Phillips, S & Sitch, A 2021, 'Mapping the outcomes of covid-19 testing reveals the best opportunities for system improvement', BMJ Opinion, vol. 2021. <https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/04/09/mapping-the-outcomes-of-covid-19-testing-programmes-reveals-the-best-opportunities-for-improvement/>

Editorial

Sitch, A, Dekkers, O, Scholefield, B & Takwoingi, Y 2021, 'Introduction to diagnostic test accuracy studies', European Journal of Endocrinology, vol. 184, no. 2, pp. E5–E9. https://doi.org/10.1530/EJE-20-1239

View all publications in research portal