Martin Bland
Emeritus Professor

Profile

Biography

Martin Bland became Professor Emeritus in 2015, having joined the University of York as Professor of Health Statistics in 2003. Before this he spent 27 years at St. George's Hospital Medical School, University of London, following posts at St. Thomas's Hospital Medical School and in industry with ICI. He is the author of An Introduction to Medical Statistics, now in its fourth edition, and co-author of Statistical Questions in Evidence-based Medicine, both Oxford University Press, more than 290 refereed journal articles reporting public health and clinical research and on research methods, and, with Professor Doug Altman, the Statistics Notes series in the British Medical Journal. Martin is currently working on several clinical trials and other studies and is providing support for postgraduate students’ dissertation work.

Personal research interests are in the design and analysis of studies of clinical measurement and of cluster randomised clinical trials. A 1986 Lancet paper with Doug Altman on statistical methods for assessing agreement between two methods of clinical measurement has now been cited 28,000 times, is the most cited paper ever to appear in the Lancet, and has been reported to be one of the 30 most highly cited papers ever. In 2007 Martin became an ISI Highly Cited Researcher and in 2008 was awarded the Senior Investigator Award of the National Institute for Health Research. 

Qualifications

• BSc Mathematics
• MSc Statistics
• PhD Epidemiology

Research

Overview

Martin's main methodological interests are in problems of medical measurement: comparing methods of clinical measurement, measurement error, adjustment using external standards, construction of centile charts, etc., and clinical trial design and analysis, particularly cluster randomised trials. Health science interests include many clinical trials and other clinical and epidemiological studies. Martin is happy to collaborate in any health or social research and is a member of several trial steering committees and data monitoring committees.

Projects

• Aspirin for venous leg ulcers (AVURT)
• Diagnosis of deaf autism (DIADS)
• Leishmania vaccine in Sudan

Research group(s)

• Trials and Statistics old home page

Supervision

Martin is happy to advise research students, but does not intend to take any more personal students.

Publications

Full publications list

• Martin Bland's publications

Teaching

Postgraduate

• Lecturer for M.Sc. modules in Understanding Clinical Statistics and in Measurement in Health and Disease, Introduction to Health Statistics and Evidence Synthesis.
• Teacher on other occasional short courses.

External activities

Memberships

• International Biometric Society
• Royal Statistical Society
• Honorary member, Royal College of Radiologists
• Member of the Grant Adjudication Panel of the Stroke Association

Editorial duties

• Board member, Statistical Methods in Medical Research

Invited talks and conferences

• Keynote speaker at the British Society of Neuroradiologists Annual Meeting, 2016.
• Invited speaker, the 13th Congress of the World Federation of Interventional and Therapeutic Neuroradiology, 9–13 November 2015, Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre, Australia.
• Main speaker, Statistical Issues in Research, NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College London, Guy’s Hospital, 28th March 2013: “Regression towards the mean or Why was Terminator III such a disappointment?”

Media coverage

• Clinical Trial Advisor for Channel 4 series, Health Freaks, shown in October, 2013
• Support for BBC series, Trust Me, I'm a Doctor
• Radio appearances on BBC Radio 4 More or Less, You and Yours.