Ivonne Solis-Trapala

Biography

I am a Reader in Biostatistics and Director of Keele Clinical Trials Unit (CTU), a fully registered UKCRC Clinical Trials Unit. My work focuses on developing statistical methods that strengthen the design, analysis, and interpretation of clinical research, working collaboratively across health services research, oncology, renal medicine, and global mental health.

As CTU Director, I provide strategic leadership for a portfolio of clinical trials and large cohort studies, working with a multidisciplinary team to deliver methodologically robust and impactful research. My methodological expertise spans graphical modelling, multistate modelling, and the development of analytical approaches for complex trial designs and real-world evidence. A consistent theme of my work is creating and applying methods that improve the robustness and interpretability of findings in clinical and population health research.

In national research infrastructure, I am Co-Director of the NIHR Research Support Service (RSS) Hub delivered by the University of Birmingham and Partners. In this role, I provide leadership and expert methodological guidance to support health and care researchers across England.

I serve on national NIHR committees, including the Health Technology Assessment Commissioning Funding Committee and the Decarbonising the Health and Social Care System programme. I also chair or sit on several Trial Steering Committees and Data Monitoring Committees, providing methodological oversight for randomised clinical trials.

Internationally, I contribute as a subject matter expert to the World Health Organization’s Global Scales for Early Development (GSED) project, helping to shape global measurement standards for early childhood development.

I also serve as Co-Editor of a BMC Pilot & Feasibility Studies article collection on decentralised clinical trials and digital health technologies, supporting methodological developments in modern trial design and remote data collection.

I hold a PhD in Statistics from the University of Cambridge and completed a four-year MRC Fellowship in Biostatistics at Lancaster University. Before joining Keele, I led the biostatistics team at the MRC Human Nutrition Research Unit in Cambridge.

Research and scholarship

My research focuses on developing statistical methods for clinical and population health research, with particular interests in graphical modelling, multistate modelling for time-to-event data, and methods for complex trials. I work collaboratively across diverse areas such as health services research, psycho-oncology, renal medicine, and global mental health.

Building on expertise developed during my MRC Fellowship in Biostatistics at Lancaster University, I have led methodological innovation in the application of the “sequences of regressions” graphical model to complex real-world data, clinical trials, and registry studies. For example, in a PLOS Medicine study (Lawson et al., 2018), I led the development of a causal graph to evaluate the relative impact of cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular comorbidities on quality of life in patients with heart failure using the Swedish Heart Failure Register. This work demonstrated that non-cardiovascular comorbidities could have a greater influence on quality of life than cardiovascular conditions. Its findings resonate with themes emphasised in later policy analyses, such as the HFPN’s 2022 report on improving heart failure care.

In renal research, I have overseen randomised controlled trials of complex interventions and introduced an integrated analytical approach combining graphical and multistate models for mixed-methods real-world evidence studies. These contributions have attracted significant external funding, including the £1.1 million NIHR-funded Inter-CEPt study (NIHR128364), and resulted in publications in world-leading journals such as Kidney International, Kidney International Reports, and American Journal of Kidney Diseases. The most recent work, using linked UK Renal Registry and survey data, applied a sequences-of-regressions approach to identify how patient and centre factors influence uptake of home dialysis across England. We found that centre practices, such as assisted peritoneal dialysis, home dialysis educational roadshows, and quality improvement or research initiatives, were associated with higher uptake, highlighting the practical importance of how services organise and support home therapies.

I also have a long-standing collaboration with Professors Fallowfield and Jenkins (Brighton and Sussex Medical School), generating clinical trial evidence on the effectiveness of communication-skills educational programmes for healthcare professionals. This work has informed policy and been adopted internationally.

Since 2023, I have served as a subject matter expert for the World Health Organization’s Global Scales for Early Development (GSED) working group, contributing to the development of global measures for early childhood development. Current work focuses on evaluating the tool’s psychometric performance in new populations and establishing international norms and standards.

I have been principal investigator or co-investigator on externally funded research totalling more than £30 million, supported by NIHR, MRC, ESRC, and international agencies.

Teaching

I lead and co-supervise PhD students in Biostatistics and Medical Sciences as well as MPhil and Medical Doctoral students.

Further information

I am a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, a member of the International Biometric Society, British and Irish region, and a member of the International Society for Clinical Biostatistics.

I review for leading peer-reviewed journals (including New England Journal of Medicine, BMJ, Nature Communications, Biostatistics and Statistics in Medicine) and multiple grant funding bodies including the Medical Research Council, the National Institute for Health and Care Research, the Economic and Social Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.