Stephen J. Duffield Email & Phone Number

Liverpool, Gb

Manchester, England, United Kingdom

My role involves the continuing development of NICE’s real-world evidence (RWE) framework, collaboration on RWE demonstration projects, and helping to transform NICE’s use of real-world data across guidance products. I am also involved with upskilling individuals within and externally to the organisation, contributing to training workshops and technical forums.

Manchester, England, United Kingdom

NICE has recently outlined its ambition to demonstrate leadership in science, evidence, and analytics as part of its 5-year strategy. To achieve this NICE has been expanding its data and analytics portfolio through the Science, Evidence, and Analytics (SEA) directorate and by creating the Institute for Digital Health. The Data & Analytics (D&A) team is at the core of SEA and provides central oversight, advice and support to embed and improve the use of data and analytics in the development and update of NICE’s outputs. A key programme of work within D&A, and a key enabler of NICE’s ambition in this area, is the Methods and Standards Programme, the team in which I work. As part of this programme I am developing a clear framework for the use of data and analytic approaches in the development of NICE guidance, ensuring real-world data is used where it can add value, and that is analysed using robust and transparent methods.

Manchester, England, United Kingdom

I've spent over 2 years in my current role in the Guideline Updates Team (GUT). My work entails, firstly, defining the parameters of a set of review questions in consultation with clinical experts. I then perform systematic reviews of evidence corresponding to each of the review questions, keeping to strict deadlines for completion. Following each systematic review I present evidence to a guideline committee comprising medical experts, other related health and social care professionals, commissioners, patient representatives, and health economists. We then agree on a set of recommendations for patient care. The process is repeated and this way a national guideline is gradually built up. More details regarding this kind of work can be found in the description of my previous role at NICE, below. Though I initially took up this role while finishing my PhD write up, this work has also provided additional valuable experience particularly regarding the development of social care guidance. While working in this role, I gained new skills in the use of qualitative evidence to provide important perspectives to influence recommendations for practice. Specifically, this involved developing an understanding of the critical appraisal of qualitative research (including mixed methods reviews), thematic synthesis, and methods to improve the presentation of qualitative data such as the development of conceptual mapping.

Institute Of Ageing And Chronic Disease, Faculty Of Health & Life Sciences

The PhD project considered the health-related causes of disability in the older working-age population. Particularly, I was interested in the impact of musculoskeletal disorders and multimorbidity (the co-occurrence of two or more health conditions in an individual) upon the ability to stay in employment. My work on this population-based project required the ability to understand and use statistics to an advanced level. I am also now skilled in the use of the Stata statistical software and the management/analysis of large databases. This work used complex primary-care-based clinical data linked with questionnaire data to answer questions about work and health. This project involved the use of several kinds of quantitative analysis including linear regression, logistic regression, cluster analysis, interaction analysis, and LASSO. I also became practiced in peer review, began to produce my own research, and now have six published research papers to which I hope to add. My work with editors and publishers has helped me to develop a trained eye for good writing. In my academic work, I often edit and peer review the work of other colleagues, and they do the same for me. This practice helps me to keep my work at a high standard and has been supremely useful for developing a succinct and clear scientific writing style. I am trained in pitching skills and have performed many presentations in front of a variety of audiences. Following such presentations, I frequently fielded questions from the audience and defend my research. I compared my results to existing published literature, for which I considered any conflicting evidence and the possible reasons why.

While completing my PhD, I worked as a medical writer for NIHR “Signals” to develop my ability to write for a variety of audiences. I worked with the NIHR Signals team to produce evidence summaries directed at a range of audiences from patients and commissioners to general practitioners, surgeons, and other healthcare professionals. My role involved reading and critically appraising new and important research followed by writing an evidence summary which is clear and can be easily understood by a broad readership who are not necessarily from a research background. This helped to facilitate the passage of, often complex, information from new research out into the wider public. See some of my published work here: https://discover.dc.nihr.ac.uk/portal/home.

Manchester And London

SUMMARY: I spent over two years working at NICE and contributed to five national clinical guidelines on a range of topics. My work entailed identifying important research questions and defining the scope of a clinical guideline in consultation with clinical experts and stakeholders. I then performed systematic reviews of evidence corresponding to each of the developed research questions, keeping to strict deadlines for completion. Following a systematic review, I would present the evidence to a guideline committee comprising medical experts, other related healthcare professionals, commissioners, patient representatives, and health economists. We would then agree on a set of recommendations for patient care. The process was repeated and this way a national guideline was gradually built up.Over the course of working as a technical analyst I developed experience in performing systematic reviews, a process which involves: the development of a protocol; the identification of relevant literature to answer a research question; critical appraisal of relevant literature; analysis and synthesis of complex data, for example, through meta-analysis; presentation of results to a committee meeting; and the rapid preparation of written reports or “chapters.” Writing a national guideline requires a great deal of accuracy and attention to detail since the results will be scrutinized by stakeholders, the country's media, and national experts. This role also required the critical appraisal of medical literature (including non-randomised and uncontrolled studies). I worked in multidisciplinary teams and with various stakeholders in NICE. In the Internal Clinical Guidelines team, I worked alongside health economists, editors, technical advisors, and expert clinicians.

Whiston Hospital Nhs Trust, St Helens And Knowsley, Warrington Road, Prescot.

I was a junior doctor on an endocrinology ward. As a foundation-year doctor, and sometimes as a medical student, I undertook ward rounds, often alone, and undertook diagnostic investigations and directed patient care. During my time as a medical student and working as a doctor I felt that clinical medicine was not for me and was eager to seek out other opportunities. It was during this time that the opportunity at NICE arose, so I left clinical medicine and took up work as a systematic reviewer and guideline developer. In medicine, I worked across many different specialties, and in various clinical teams made up of healthcare assistants, nurses, specialist nurses, occupational therapists, speech therapists, consultants, and registrars. As a medical student, I also helped collect data for the National Diabetes Audit in the Royal Hospital Liverpool .

Doctor Of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Institute Of Ageing And Chronic Disease [Musculoskeletal Biology (Medicine)]

Activities and Societies: Debating society The PhD project considered the health-related causes of disability in the older working-age.

Doctor Of Medicine (M.D.), Medicine

Having completed a degree with many research elements I was well equipped to enter the world of research. Completing my medical degree.