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Dr Rebecca Playle

Dr Rebecca Playle

Senior Lecturer in Medical Statistics

Email:
playlera@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone:
+44 29207 44821
Media commentator
Available for postgraduate supervision

I am the Lead for the Health Services Research Statistics Group in the Centre for Trials Research (CTR), Cardiff University. I have over 10 years experience of the design, management, analysis and reporting of individual and cluster randomised trials and other well-designed studies. Prior to working solely in CTR, I held joint appointments as a Lecturer and then a Senior Lecturer in Medical Statistics in the Dental and Medical Schools at Cardiff.  My areas of methodological interest include dealing with clustering within group delivered intervention trials, handling missing data and independent patient data meta-analysis. The clinical areas I have experience in include public health, diabetes, health services care pathways, oral health and neuroscience.

Career Profile

Qualifications: BSc MSc PhD

 

Work history:

2007- current Head of Statistics, CTR, Cardiff University, UK

2011- 2017 Senior Lecturer in Medical Statistics, Cardiff University, UK

2002-2011 Lecturer in Medical Statistics, Cardiff University, UK

2001-2002 Lecturer in Statistics, University of Western Sydney, Australia

1995-2001 Medical Statistician, Llandough Hospital, Cardiff, UK

1993-1995 Research Statistician, Health Promotion Wales, Cardiff, UK

Memberships / External Activities

Fellow of the HEA

Awards / Prizes

Certificate in Teaching Statistics in Higher Education

Teaching Profile

Undergraduate Teaching topics Year 3

  • Introduction to SPSS, data entry, cleaning and management, graphing, summary statistics and the Normal distribution
  • Introduction to confidence intervals, sampling variation, testing for normality, confidence intervals for paired data
  • Probability and hypothesis testing,   paired parametric and non-parametric tests
  • Comparson of independent groups, unpaired parametric and non-parametric tests
  • Proportions and Caregorical data, Chi-square tests, Relative risks and Odds ratios

Undergraduate Teaching topics Year 4

  • Study design
  • Statistics for critical appraisal

Postgraduate and Advanced Teaching topics

  • Adequacy of statistical information, interpretation of statistical tests, Type I and Type II errors, study planning and power, statistical significance and clinical importance
  • Oneway ANOVA, assumptions of ANOVA, model building and checking, post hoc tests
  • Two factor ANOVA, fixed and random effects, model building and checking
  • Regression, bivariate and multivariate linear regression, assumption checking and model fitting
  • Logistic regression, bivariate and multivariate regression

2019

2018

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1998

1995

  • Moore, L. A. R., Playle, R. A. and Smith, C. 1995. Social group trends in smoking in Wales, 1985-1993. Presented at: 9th World Conference on Tobacco and Health, Paris, France, 10-14 October 1994 Presented at Slama, K. ed.Tobacco and Health: Proceedings of the 9th World Conference on Tobacco and Health, Paris, France, 10-14 October 1994. New York: Plenum Press pp. 575-578.

 Research awards 

  • 2018-2019 Jacques and Gloria Gossweiler Foundation. Physical Activity and Exercise outcomes in Huntington’s disease. £411,005 (Co-applicant)
  • 2018-2021 Multiple Sclerosis Society. Life-style, Exercise and Activity Package for People living with Progressive Multiple Sclerosis. £298,509 (Co-applicant)
  • 2018-2020 Health and Care Research Wales. SEWTU Infrastructure funding extension.  £173,3333 (Co-applicant)
  • 2017-2019 COGTRAIN Health and Care Research Wales. Exploring computerised cognitive training as a therapeutic intervention for people with Huntington's disease £329, 695 (Co-applicant)
  • 2015-2018 NISCHR. South East Wales Trials Unit Infrastructure Funding. (£2.6M) (Co-applicant)
  • 2014-2016 NIHR HTA. MAMKIND: A novel peer support intervention using motivational interviewing for breast feeding maintenance, a UK feasibility study (£293,307) (Co-applicant)
  • 2013-2018 European Commission (Framework Programme 7). BRAINTRAIN: Taking imaging into the therapeutic domain: Self-regulation of brain systems for mental disorders. (€5.9mio across 10 partners) (Co-applicant)
  • 2013-2016 SCRA. GASP: Early intervention for alcohol and illicit drug using pre-trial prisoners (£213,620) (Co-applicant)
  • 2010-2016 HTA. Seal or Varnish? A randomised trial to determine the relative cost and effectiveness of pit and fissure sealants and fluoride varnish in preventing dental decay. (£1,258,498) (Co-applicant)

Research interests

My areas of methodological interest include dealing with clustering within group delivered intervention trials, handling missing data and independent patient data meta-analysis. The clinical areas I have experience in include public health, diabetes, health services care pathways, oral health and neuroscience

Areas of expertise