Mona Kanaan
Professor, Senior Fellow of HEA

Profile

Biography

Mona is a Professor in Applied Health Research & Statistics and Senior Fellow of HEA. Mona was the Programme Leader for the Postgraduate certificate in Health Research and Statistics and is currently the Director of Post Graduate Education and Chair  of the Post Graduate Teaching Committee at the Department. 

Mona has worked on statistical modelling of childhood infectious diseases, analysis of randomised controlled trials in the health and social sciences including cluster randomised trials and stepped wedge trials, and spatial statistics. She has published extensively in health and social sciences and statistical journals. She has been involved in the analysis of datasets from both the UK and internationally (Lebanon, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Syria, and South Africa) with applications ranging from maternity outcomes to MMR vaccines, tobacco control, reablement and criminal justice data.

She also serves on a number of data monitoring committees and trial/study steering committees and has served on an NIHR regional funding committee and NIHR Health Services & Delivery Research Committee. She is an associate editor of Ethnicity and Health, Deputy Statistics and Methodology Editor of Addiction.

Mona is currently a member of the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) Council and a member of the RSS Medical Section (and has previously acted as its Chair) and led on the Statistics workstream of the NIHR Methodology Incubator. Mona will serve on the NIHR Advanced Fellowship Committee from April 2024.

Mona trained initially as a Mathematician at the American University of Beirut supported by a Hariri Foundation Scholarship. She then moved on to study Mathematical Statistics at the University of Cambridge supported by the Karim Rida Said Foundation. Mona then completed her PhD studies in Spatial Statistics at the Open University supported by an Open University studentship and an Overseas Research Studentship Award. This was followed by a post-doctoral post at the Open University working with Prof. Paddy Farrington on parameter estimation for infectious diseases. Mona then took an Assistant Professor in Biostatistics position at the Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut before joining the University of York.

Follow Mona @MonaKanaan3 or at Linkedin

Qualifications

• BSc in Mathematics (with distinction), American University of Beirut
• Postgraduate degree in Mathematical Statistics, University of Cambridge
• PhD (statistics), The Open University

Departmental roles

• Director of Post Graduate Education 
• Chair of the Post Graduate Teaching Committee
• Member of the Research Committee
• Member of the Research Degrees Committee
• Member of the Board of Studies
• Member of the PG Exams board
• Mona previously served:
  • on the University of York Senate.
  • as Programme Leader for the Post graduate certificate in Health Research and Statistics
  • as the Postgraduate Admissions Tutor
  • on the Research Governance Committee
  • as a Chair of the Departmental Library Committee
  • as a Member of the University Library Committee

Research

Overview

Mona's research interests include health statistics in general with particular focus on randomised trials, cluster randomised trials, stepped wedge design, spatial statistics and statistical methods for the analysis of infectious diseases specifically measles, mumps and rubella (MMR). Mona’s work includes trials on control of tobacco use, improving communication skills among doctors and awareness of patient safety for doctors in training, empowerment of pregnant women, and breathing techniques for lung cancer patients.   

Mona's research expertise is in Applied Health Research Statistics. Specifically, she is interested in the analysis of health and social related statistics. To this effect, she usually leads on the statistical aspects in the design of studies in general. She has expertise in various study design including parallel randomised trials, cluster randomised trials, stepped wedge design, spatial statistics and observational studies.

Mona has co-supervised a PhD student who explored the role of social isolation and loneliness in coronary heart disease and stroke participants of the ELSA study. The work of the student attracted national and international coverage. One of the papers that they co-authored also received the best paper of the year from the prestigious Heart journal.

Mona is the founder of the International Conference on the Stepped Wedge Design. Mona was the Programme Chair for the RSS International Conference in Harrogate 2023.

Projects

Current projects

• CLASS III: Children learning about second-hand smoke : A  cluster randomised controlled trial
• TYPPEX: Tailoring evidence-based psychological therapy for people with a common mental disorder including Psychotic Experiences study
• Reporting of Intra-Cluster Correlation Coefficients in Stepped-Wedge Cluster Randomised Trials

Completed projects include:

• ASTRA: Addressing Smokeless Tobacco and building Research Capacity in South Asia
  • Youth Study
  • Sellers Study
  • Cessation Study
• Smokeless tobacco control in the UK: A supply chain analysis to inform policy
• PROLIFE: Improving TB outcomes by modifying life-style behaviours through a brief motivational intervention
• Models of reablement evaluation: a mixed methods evaluation of a complex intervention (The MoRE project)
• The efficacy of varenicline in achieving abstinence among hookah smokers: A two-arm, double blind, randomised, placebo controlled trial
• Children learning about second-hand smoke (CLASS II): A pilot cluster randomised controlled trial
• A randomised trial of high versus low intensity training in breathing techniques for breathlessness in patients with malignant lung disease: early intervention (SOB-II)
• HOPE - Health of Populations and Ecosystems
• CLASS (Children Learning About Second-hand Smoke): a cluster RCT. NIHR Public Health Research Programme Grant
• Citizenship evaluation project’, National Probation Service
• Effect of doctors' training in interpersonal and communication skills on women's satisfaction at labour and delivery: a stepped wedge cluster randomized trial in Damascus, Wellcome Trust as part of the Changing Childbirth network
• Mobilizing women to change maternity practices: a cluster randomized controlled trial’, Wellcome Trust as part of the Changing Childbirth network

Research group(s)

• Trials and Statistics

Supervision

Sucessfully completed PhD Supervision

• Aishwarya Lakshmi Vidyasagaran (Co-supervisor with Kamran Siddiqi)
• Dina Jankovic (Co-supervisor with Laura Bojke)
• Nahid Batarfi (Co-supervisor with Karl Atkin)
• Francesco Ramponi (CHE student: co-supervisor with Gerry Richardson)
• Nicole Valtorta (Co-supervisor with Barbara Hanratty and Simon Gilbody)
• Radha Shukla (Co-supervisor with Kamran Siddiqi)
• John Ratcliffe (Co-supervisor with Paul Galdas)
• Zainab Kidwai (Co-supervisor with Kamran Siddiqi)

Current PhD Supervisees

• Abdullah Sonnet (Co-supervisor with Kamran Siddiqi)
• Helen Recchia (Co-supervisor with Paul Galdas and Helen Bedford)
• Huda Sarwar (Co-supervisor with Claire Carswell and Shaista Rasul)
• Shushan Li (Co-supervisor with Kamran Siddiqi)

Thesis Advisory Panel Membership (TAP)

• (Completed) Member of the TAP group for Kholod AlOtaibi (Supervised by Patrick Doherty and Alexander Harrison)
• (Completed) Member of the TAP group for Georgios Nikiliadis (Supervised by Marta Soares and Stephen Palmer)
• (Completed) Member of the TAP group for Omara Dogar (Supervised by Trevor Sheldon and Kamran Siddiqi)

Teaching

Postgraduate

Module leader for:

• Regression Analysis introduces students to linear regression analysis and logistic regression using the statistical package STATA.  This is also available for distance learning delivery  Regression Analysis Online.
• Advanced Regression Analysis covers interactions in regression analysis both linear and logistic and introduces analysis for time-to-event data, count data, and multilevel data using the statistical package STATA.  This is also available for online delivery only Advanced Regression Analysis online.

Ex-Module leader for:

• Introduction to Regression Analysis introduces linear regression analysis and logistic regression using the statistical package SPSS.  This is also available for online delivery only Introduction to Regression Analysis Online.
• Further Regression Analysis covers interactions in regression analysis both linear and logistic and introduces analysis for time-to-event data using the statistical package STATA.  This is also available for online delivery only Further Regression Analysis (online)
• An Introduction to Applied Multilevel Analysis introduces multilevel analysis using the statistical package STATA.

Ex-Co-module leader for:

• Health Research Methods

Publications

Full publications list

• Mona Kanaan's publications

External activities

Memberships

• Ex-Member of the NIHR  HS&DR prioritisation panel 
• Member and Ex-Chair of the Royal Statistical Society Medical section
• Member of the Organising committee for the International Conference on Stepped Wedge Trial Design
• Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society
• Member of the American Statistical Association
• Member of the International Biometric Society
• Volunteer with Statistics without Borders
• Ex-Member of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics
• Ex-member of the Research for Patient Benefit Regional Funding Committee (NIHR)
• Independent member of the Trial Steering Committee for: 
  • (Ongoing) An online Parenting Intervention to Preventaffective disorders in high-risk Adolescents:The PIPA Trial
  • (Completed) RESPECT:  pilot cluster RCT of a school-based intervention to prevent dating and relationship violence among young people
• Member of the Data Monitoring Committee for the following studies:
  • Ongoing
  • Supportive exercise programmes for accelerating recovery after major abdominal cancer surgery (PREPARE-ABC)
  • Completed
    • Care-Dem Study
    • Lifestyles Matters trial
    • Children learning about second-hand smoke (CLASS II): A pilot cluster randomised controlled trial
    • EXACT- Exercise for Adults with Crohn's disease trial
    • Journeying through Dementia

Editorial duties

• Assistant Editor: Ethnicity & Health
• Deputy Statistics and Methodology Editor:  Addiction

Invited talks and conferences

• "An introduction to spectral analysis of spatial point-lattice processes", invited talk presented at the Statistical Computing Section of the Royal Statistical Society