Professor Obi Ukoumunne

About me:
Overview

Obi is a medical statistician in the University of Exeter Medical School (based in the Relational Health research group) and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration South West (PenARC). He is also senior statistician in the Oxford Centre for Emerging Minds Research, led by Professor Cathy Creswell (University of Oxford). He collaborates as statistical lead on health research studies and teaches statistics to undergraduate and postgraduate students and on PenARC’s Making Sense of Evidence (critical appraisal) and Statistics workshops, delivered to health care staff, managers and members of the public.

His research track record reflects contributions to medical and non-medical health research in the areas of child mental health and primary/community care. His area of expertise is the design, conduct and analysis of cluster randomised controlled trials where entire clusters of participants are allocated to the trial groups. In recent years he has been the statistical lead on school-based cluster randomised trials where schools are allocated, with outcomes measured on individual pupils. A recently published example is the “MYRIAD” trial of school-based mindfulness training to reduce risk of mental health problems and promote well-being in adolescence (funded by the Wellcome Trust). He is also the statistical lead on two school-based cluster randomised trials (MyCATS and iCATS) of an intervention that involves delivering online support to parents to resolve their children's anxiety problems (led by Cathy Creswell and respectively funded by Kavli Trust and National Institute for Health Research). One of his recent PhD students did her thesis on methodological aspects of school-based cluster randomised trials.

Amongst other collaborations he is the lead statistician on an NIHR HTA-funded cluster randomised trial of the effectiveness of oral nutritional supplements in older adults with malnutrition in the care home setting (led by Professor Mary Hickson, University of Plymouth).

He is a statistical adviser and member of the editorial boards of the British Journal of General Practice (since 2011) and BJGP Open (since 2020). Since 2020, he has been a panel member of the Stage 2 sub-committee for the National Institute for Health Research Programme Grants for Applied Research (PGfAR) funding stream.

Broad research specialisms

Statistics; Epidemiology.

Interests:

Cluster randomised controlled trials methodology; latent variable models; studies of diagnostic test accuracy; mental health; child health.

Qualifications:

• BSc – Mathematics For Decision Making
• MSc – Social Research Methods and Statistics
• PhD – Statistics
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (teaching qualification)

Career:

2005-2010 Senior Research Fellow, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Australia

2000-2005 MRC Research Fellow, King’s College London

1997-2000 Research Fellow, Imperial College, London

1995-1997 Research Associate, United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals, London