Retirement of Head of Medical Statistics

Julie Morris, Head of Medical Statistics will retire at the end of 2018 after over 30 years in post.

Julie’s breadth of expertise involves an extensive range of skills, she has provided statistical support to researchers throughout all stages of the trial process from advising on study design, data management and an appropriate statistical approach through to the analysies stage of interpreting data and preparing final trial reports.

Julie began her statistical career as a lecturer at Southampton University, and then joined the NHS as a statistician in 1987 based at Withington Hospital before moving to the Education Research Centre (ERC) building located at the former University Hospital of South Manchester in 1999 (now known as Wythenshawe Hospital.)

I have enjoyed the variety of different studies I have been a part of and exploring new methods of statistical analysis with the advancements in technology and software developments which have made a great impact in the field of applied statistics.

Iain McLean, Senior Research and Innovation Manager said, “On behalf of the Trust I would like to say a heartfelt thank you to Julie for her dedication, commitment and service to MFT and former Hospitals. Julie has been central to the successful delivery of hundreds of research studies over the years and she has also helped to deliver a wide range of teaching and consultation programmes in research methods and statistics for researchers across the Trust.”

After retiring, Julie will continue in her position as Statistical Editor for the medical research journal, BMJ and she is an Honorary Reader for the University of Manchester where she supervises and monitors PhD students with related clinical academic roles, and medical students by offering advice and interpreting the use of statistical programmes.

The most important advice Julie gives to researchers is to involve statisticians early on:

 I always recommend and encourage researchers to involve a statistician in the planning and review of studies before they are submitted for ethics approval. This will help contribute to the successful planning and set up of a new study and help to ensure validity of data and successful publication of results.

Julie will be superseded by Dr John Belcher who will be joining the Statistical Support Service based at Wythenshawe Hospital in January 2019. John is an accomplished Senior Lecturer in Medical Statistics at Keele University with a wealth of knowledge  from his role as a Front Line Adviser for Medical Statistics for the West Midlands Research Design Service.