New chair of our Scientific Advisory Committee

Professor Catriona McDaid has been appointed as chair of our Scientific Advisory Committee. She is Professor of Applied Health Research at the University of York, with a long-standing interest in the evaluation of complex surgical interventions. She took what she describes as ‘something of a circuitous route’ into academia, beginning her career in the voluntary sector and a non-departmental public body. She has a PhD in neuropsychology and has undertaken health technology assessments of pharmacological, behavioural, surgical and policy interventions. She has experience in leading systematic reviews, randomised controlled trials, feasibility studies and mixed methods studies. Much of her recent work has focused on the use of randomised controlled trials to evaluate musculoskeletal surgical interventions, making her the ideal person to chair ORUK’s Scientific Advisory Committee. She is also co-director of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)’s Research Support Service, which provides research design support to researchers across England.

Catriona describes the role as chair of ORUK’s Scientific Committee as ‘a great opportunity to be involved in decision making about essential funding for MSK health’ and to apply her expertise to ensure that funded research projects are properly evaluated. ‘Our role is to ensure that people are offered healthcare interventions that are effective and make the best use of NHS resources. To be able to do this it’s essential to undertake research to build up the evidence base.’ She is also keen to champion the work of statisticians, qualitative researchers, health economists and applied health researchers, who she describes as integral to the research eco-system.

Away from the workplace, Catriona is a keen hillwalker in North and East Yorkshire and Donegal where her family are from, which she says allows her to ‘really switch off’.