OBN Christmas Lecture

12 December, Somerville College, Oxford 

'Improving Population Health through

large scale data science'

Presented by Professor Cathie Sudlow

Programme for the evening:

18.00 - 18.30 Guest Arrival & Networking

18.30 - 18.35 Welcome by Philip Simister, Head of Science and Entrepreneur Advocate at OBN & lecture sponsor James Fry, Partner at Mills & Reeve

18.35 – 19.35 Lecture and Audience Questions with Professor Cathie Sudlow OBE,​ Chair of Clinical Epidemiology and Neurology at the University of Edinburgh (more details below)

19.35 – 21.30 Christmas Drinks, Nibbles and Networking

About Professor Cathie Sudlow:

Cathie was recently appointed Director of a new UKRI-funded initiative, the Adolescent Health Study, which is aiming to recruit and follow the health and wellbeing of at least 100,000 8-18 year olds across the UK, generating a research resource to transform our understanding of the determinants of health and wellbeing during the critical transition from adolescence to adulthood.

Until just over a month ago, Cathie was Chief Scientist and Deputy Director of Health Data Research UK and Director of the British Heart Foundation Data Science Centre. Cathie is Chair of Clinical Epidemiology and Neurology at the University of Edinburgh. She was previously Director of the Centre for Medical Informatics at the Usher Institute, the first Research Director for HDR UK in Scotland and Chief Scientist of UK Biobank.

Cathie's research interests have always been firmly embedded in the world of big data. Over the last 15 years, she has focused on leading large-scale, collaborative, open-science initiatives that enable a better understanding of the causes and consequences of health and disease across the life course, leading to new and improved approaches to prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

From 2011 to 2019, she led efforts to follow the health of UK Biobank participants through linkage to national health datasets, and during 2020-2021 worked with NHS Digital to develop the first trusted research environment to hold and enable access for research to linked health data from multiple sources for the whole population of England.

In 2023, Cathie was commissioned by Professor Sir Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Adviser to the UK Government, Professor Sir Ian Diamond, the UK's National Statistician, and Dr Tim Ferris, Director of Transformation at NHS England, to conduct a review of the UK-wide Health Data Landscape, advising on the barriers and solutions to sharing and analysis of data for patient and public benefit. Her review, entitled Uniting the UK's health data: a huge opportunity for society, will be published in the coming weeks.

Cathie is fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. She was awarded an OBE for services to medical research in 2020.

For the Event Terms and Conditions please click here.