David Gillespie

Senior Research Fellow

: gillespied1@cardiff.ac.uk
: +44 (0)29 2068 7610
: 503, 4th Floor, Neuadd Meirionnydd, Heath Park

: Available for postgraduate supervision

I am a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Trials Research and a hold a five-year Health Research Fellowship awarded by Health and Care Research Wales to investigate the use of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) in individuals at-risk of HIV-acquisition living in Wales.

My background is in Medical Statistics, and I have been working on the design, conduct, analysis, and reporting of randomised trials and other well designed studies since 2007. I completed my PhD at the end of 2016, with my thesis titled “Medication Adherence in Clinical Research and Associated Methodological Challenges”.

Clinically, my research interests focus on prudent medication use in the field of infectious diseases, and my work can be broadly split into two key areas:

Medication adherence – specifically, ways in which adherence to medication is conceptualised, measured, and modelled
The development and evaluation of antimicrobial stewardship interventions

I am also actively involved in a large programme of research in the field of intellectual disabilities and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

My areas of methodological interest include:

Trials and general research methodology (improving the ways in which we do randomised trials and other well designed studies)
Causal modelling (modelling approaches that aim to answer causal questions, rather than purely associational)
Missing data (prevention of, and fitting models when there are missing data).

Education and qualifications:

2013 - 2016: PhD "Medication Adherence in Clinical Research and Associated Methodological Challenges" (School of Medicine) Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
2005 - 2009: BSc in Mathematics, Operational Research and Statistics (School of Mathematics) Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK (with placement year)

Career overview:

May 2018 - March 2020: Deputy Director of Infection, Inflammation & Immunity Trials and Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Trials Research, Cardiff University
December 2016 - May 2018: Research Fellow in Statistics, Centre for Trials Research, Cardiff University
October 2015 - March 2016: Methodological Consultant, Research Design and Conduct Service, Cardiff University (part-time secondment)
August 2015 - November 2016: Research Associate in Statistics, Centre for Trials Research, Cardiff University
March 2012 - November 2016: Research Associate in Statistics, South East Wales Trials Unit, Cardiff University
June 2009 - March 2012: Junior Statistician, South East Wales Trials Unit, Cardiff University
July 2007 - September 2008: Trainee Statistician, South East Wales Trials Unit, Cardiff University

Honours and awards

Nominated for a Cardiff University Celebrating Excellence Award in the category of "Rising Star" (2016)
Received an Outstanding Contribution Award from Cardiff University (2016)
Received a prize at graduation for achieving the highest grade across the School of Mathematics for my BSc dissertation (2009)

Speaking engagements

Invited speaker:

December 2019: PrEP seminar (hosted by Glasgow Caledonian University)
November 2019: PRIME annual meeting
June 2019: Aneurin Bevan Annual R&D Conference
December 2016: Infections Group Meeting within the Centre for Academic Primary Care, School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol
July 2016: School of Healthcare Sciences away day, School of Healthcare Sciences, Cardiff University
June 2016: Royal Statistical Society Primary Healthcare Special Interest Group, RSS Headquarters, London
March 2015: National Parenting Coordinators' Network, Llandridnod Wells
May 2014: Royal Statistical Society Primary Healthcare Special Interest Group, University of Leeds

Conference presentations:

Given presentations at regional, national, and international conferences, including:

Regional:
- PRIME annual meeting (2019, invited)
- ABUHB R&D conference (2019, invited)
- South West Society for Academic Primary Care (2008, 2014)
National:
- Young Statisticians' Meeting (2010, 2011, 2013)
- UK CRC Registered CTU Statisticians' Meeting (2012)
- Society for Academic Primary Care (2015)
International:
- International Clinical Trials Methodology Conference (2011, 2015)
- General Practitioners' Research in Infections Network (2009, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018)
- Society for Clinical Trials (2015)
- European Society for Patient Adherence, Compliance and Persistence (2015)
- European Association for Mental Health in Intellectual Disabilities (2017)

Committees and reviewing

External committees

2011 - 2014: Royal Statistical Society Primary Healthcare Special Interest Group
Independent Trial Steering Committee member for three studies (SupportBack2, PROMPPT)
Previous independent member of several TSCs and IDMCs
Previous board member for the Health and Care Research Wales Research for Patient and Public Benefit (RfPPB) panel
Associate board member for NIHR HTA

Peer reviewer

I am a consulting editor in statistics for the Journal of Intellectual Disabilities Research.

I peer-review submissions to The Lancet (and associated journals), BMJ Open, Journal of Infection Prevention Research, Research in Developmental Disabilities, Trials, and Patient Preference and Adherence. I also review funding applications and final reports for the NIHR, MRC, and HCRW.

Teaching

During the 2019/2020 academic year I gave a lecture on "Randomised trials of treatment strategies to help improve antibiotic prescribing and infection-related outcomes" for the Acute Conditions Module of the Population Health Intercalated BSc.
During the 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 academic years I ran sessions on developing study protocols as part of the Research Methods 2 module for Medical Intercalated BSc students
During the 2017/2018 academic year, I am lectured on "Randomised Controlled Trials" as part of the ME 3092 Research Methods 1 module for Medical Intercalated BSc students
In June 2016, I co-developed and delivered a three-day course on basic data analysis using the statistical programming language R (titled "learnR") to staff at the University of Namibia as part of the Phoenix Project (http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/phoenix-project)
Previously, I have taught small and medium group sizes at both undergraduate and postgraduate level on topics including quantitative research methods, statistics, and critical appraisal

Supervision

I am currently supervising two PhD students:
- Adam Williams (joint lead supervisor): UPrEP (Understanding the Relationship between PrEP Use, STIs, and AMR). Funded by the KESS2 East PhD Studentship Scheme in partnership with Public Health Wales.
- Timothy Pickles (co-supervisor):SOCRATES (Patient-reported Outcome Measures of Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptom Severity: development of a computer adaptive test from an item bank using Rasch measurement theory). Funded by NIHR/HCRW Doctoral Fellowship scheme.
I am currently submitting proposals to supervise undergraduate and postgraduate students in the fields of medication adherence and infectious diseases.
I have supervised three undergraduate dissertations (2 x Medical Intercalated BSc and BSc Mathematics, Operational Research and Statistics) and three MSc dissertations (2 x MSc Operational Research and Applied Statistics, MSc Bioinformatics and Biostatistics).

Since 2013, I have been awarded approximately >£20m in grant funding, including approx. £450k as lead applicant.

Research grants (most recent first):

Langdon et al. Behavioural interventions to treat anxiety in adults with autism and moderate to severe intellectual disabilities (BEAMS – ID). NIHR HTA. £0.2m
Gillespie et al. Collaborative Seminar on Primary Care Infections Research between Centre for Trials Research, Division of Population Medicine, and the EPI-Centre. Cardiff University and KU Leuven Joint Mobility Fund (internal). £2.5k.
Stenfert-Kroese et al. A randomised feasibility study of a school-based emotional literacy programme (Zippy's Friends) for children with intellectual disabilities (ZIP-SEND). NIHR PHR. £0.55m.
Waterman et al. Examining assumptions, accuracy and acceptance of an electronic monitoring device for adherence to eye drops: the EASY label study. IGA. £30k.
Marsal et al. DocTIS - Decision on optimal combinatorial therapies in IMIDs using systems approaches. H2020. €7m.
Solomon et al. Enceph-IG - Intravenous Immunoglobulin in Autoimmune Encephalitis in Adults: A Randomised Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Trial. NIHR/MRC EME. £2.4m.
Denne et al. Teaching early reading skills to adults with intellectual disabilities (READ-IT) using a support worker/family carer mediated on-line reading programme – a feasibility study. NIHR RfPB. £0.25m.
Scior et al. The STanding up fOR Myself (STORM) psychosocial group intervention for young people and adults with intellectual disabilities: Feasibility study. NIHR PHR. £0.6m.
Kotecha et al. AZithromycin ThErapy for Chronic lung disease (AZTEC): A randomised, placebo controlled trial of azithromycin for the prevention of chronic lung disease of prematurity in preterm infants. NIHR HTA. £2.1m.
Hood/Gillespie et al. Understanding the relationship between pre-exposure prophylaxis, sexually transmitted infections, and antimicrobial resistance in Wales (UNREST). KESS2 East PhD Studentship Scheme. £50k.
Walsh et al. Burden of Antibiotic Resistance in Neonates from Developing Societies - Epidemiological and Genomic Analyses of BARNARDS Network. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. £0.6m.
Gillespie et al. Development of an intervention to optimise use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV-acquisition in at-risk individuals living in Wales (DO-PrEP). Health and Care Research Wales Health Research Fellowship. £0.4m.
Hastings et al. Early Positive Approaches to Support (E-PAtS) for families of young children with intellectual disability: Feasibility study. NIHR PHR. £0.5m.
Courtenay et al. An intervention for primary care prescribers to support the choice and use of antibiotics. ESRC IAA (internal). £20k.
Rosser et al. Trial designs for delivery of novel therapies for neurodegeneration (TRIDENT). HCRW RfPPB. £0.22m
Morgan/Waterman et al. Feasibility and Acceptability of a new Clinical Pathway for the Identification of Non-Responders to Glaucoma Eye Drops (the TRIAGE study). Health and Care Research Wales RfPPB. £0.23m.
Jahoda et al. Behavioural activation (BeatIt) for depression in adults with severe intellectual disabilities. A feasibility randomised controlled study of BeatIt versus treatment as usual. The Baily Thomas Charitable Fund. £0.1m.
Butler et al. Probiotics to reduce infections in care home residents (PRINCESS). NIHR/MRC EME. £1.9m.
McNamara/Delport et al. A pragmatic randomised controlled trial of sensory integration therapy versus usual care for sensory processing difficulties in autism spectrum disorder in children, and its impact on behavioural difficulties, adaptive skills and socialisation (SenITA). NIHR HTA. £1.5m.
Butler/Francis et al. General Practitioner (GP) use of a C-Reactive Protein (CRP) Point of Care Test (POCT) to help target antibiotic prescribing to patients with Acute Exacerbations of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (AECOPD) who are most likely to benefit (PACE). NIHR HTA. £1.4m.
Kerr et al. Community-led anti-psychotic drug reduction for adults with learning disabilities: a randomised double-blind placebo controlled trial (ANDREA-LD). NIHR HTA. £1.5m.