At NESSIE we are continuing with our “Spotlight on the Researcher” series, and this time we are focusing on Professor Gerry Stansby, Professor of Vascular Surgery at Newcastle University. Gerry is one of NESSIE’s founding members having previously been joint co-ordinating editor for the Cochrane Vascular group, a role which he describes as being very rewarding, recognising the impact that publishing evidence reviews can have on health services. Gerry highlighted that it was

“…really important to get work out to people who make decisions, not just health professionals –

but those who run, fund and develop health services as well as patients themselves”. 

In addition to his academic role at Newcastle University, Gerry also has a clinical role as an honorary consultant vascular surgeon at the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and is the abdominal aortic aneurysm screening lead for the North East and North Cumbria.

Gerry has an interest in the interaction of risk factors for stroke, heart attack and peripheral arterial disease, and whilst he values the vigorous, scientific approach used at NESSIE he recognises the importance of sharing our findings in a way that can be accessed and used by a broad audience. The use of social media and liaising with organisations such as the National Institute for Health & Care Excellence (NICE) can help with this.  He also wanted to stress that an academic approach doesn’t necessarily highlight what is important to patients and families, so having an experienced team of researchers at NESSIE with different backgrounds can be a good starting point as well as working with a wide team of clinicians and members of the public, including patients and carers.

If you are interested in reading more about how we work with members of the public, you might be interested in our previous blog on this.  Gerry highlighted that this wider team can help reduce bias within reviews and offer a more balanced approach when a consensus view is needed.

If this is something you think you might be interested in getting involved in for future reviews, then why not comment in the reply box below, or contact us directly.

Now that NESSIE has been running for a number of years (nearly 3!) I asked Gerry what he hopes for the future. He hopes that NESSIE continues to be funded and produce evidence reviews for health and care services. He recognised our role in producing non-standard reviews such as evidence gap maps for areas where a lack of research evidence such as randomised controlled trials, means traditional systematic reviews are more difficult to do. The use of other types of reviews such as evidence gap maps helps to identify key areas (or gaps) for researchers and funders to address.

We hope to continue with our Spotlight on the Researcher series soon so why not subscribe to our blog by leaving your details on the right-hand side of this page.

Blog by Dr Katie Thomson and Professor Gerry Stansby  (photographed above)

Spotlight on researchers – Professor Gerry Stansby / NESSIE - NIHR Evidence Synthesis Scotland InitiativE by blogadmin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0