Dr Heidi Gardner
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Dr Heidi Gardner
Research Fellow
- About
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Health Services Research Unit,
University of Aberdeen,
3rd Floor, Health Sciences Building,
Foresterhill,
Aberdeen,
AB25 1SNBiography
I joined HSRU in 2015 as a PhD student funded by The Development Trust, and under the supervision of Prof Shaun Treweek and Dr Katie Gillies. My project focussed on improving the efficiency of clinical trials, with particular focus on participant recruitment.
In 2018 I was named as a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellow. As part of this Fellowship I designed and led a research project around the use of blogging to creatively communicate scientific ideas and processes. My brief hiatus from HSRU involved 3 months of fully funded travel to the USA, Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong.
I returned to HSRU in March 2019 and since then I've worked as a Research Fellow specialising in qualitative and mixed-methods researcher leading the design, development, and delivery of research projects that aim to inform trial design processes with a focus on inclusivity.
In recent years I contributed to the development of the NIHR’s INCLUDE Ethnicity Framework, which supports trial teams to make design decisions that ensure their research is inclusive with regards to ethnicity. I'm currently building on that work, co-leading the development of the INCLUDE Socioeconomic Framework, which will support trial teams to improve inclusivity in their trials with a particular focus on people experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage.
In addition, I lead or co-lead; the MERIT Project, a qualitative evidence synthesis that explores factor that impact on recruitment of people from ethnic minorities to trials; the qualitative work of the INCLUDED project, which investigates how people from ethnic minority communities in the UK feel about the collection of ethnicity data, including the potential impact on inclusion in trials; and the STRIDE project, which uses the NIHR INCLUDE Ethnicity Framework as a basis with which to identify the proportion of people from different ethnic groups needed for the trial to be truly representative of the communities that their results have the potential to impact.Qualifications
- MSci Pharmacology with Industrial Placement2015 - University of Aberdeen
- PhD Applied Health Sciences2018 - University of Aberdeen
Memberships and Affiliations
- Internal Memberships
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Member of the School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition Ethics Review Board (SERB)
Member of the University of Aberdeen's Research Culture Task and Finish Group
- External Memberships
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Co-lead of the MRC-NIHR Trials Methodology Research Partnership Recruitment Working Group
Core member of the MRC-NIHR Trials Methodology Research Partnership Inclusivity Working Group
Associate Editor of Trials Journal
Latest Publications
A good use of time? Providing evidence for how effort is invested in primary and secondary outcome data collection in trials
Trials, vol. 23, no. 1, 1047Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-022-06973-8
Trial Forge Guidance 3: Randomised trials and how to recruit and retain individuals from ethnic minority groups– practical guidance to support better practice
Trials, vol. 23, no. 1, 672Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-022-06669-z
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/19111/1/Dawson_etal_T_Trial_forge_guidance_VOR.pdf
- [ONLINE] Correction
Developing an online, searchable database to systematically map and organise current literature on retention research (ORRCA2)
Clinical Trials, vol. 19, no. 1Contributions to Journals: ArticlesAn international core outcome set for evaluating interventions to improve informed consent to clinical trials: the ELICIT Study
Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, vol. 137, pp. 14-22Contributions to Journals: ArticlesDeveloping the INCLUDE Ethnicity Framework: a tool to help trialists design trials that better reflect the communities they serve
Trials, vol. 22, 337Contributions to Journals: Articles
Prizes and Awards
- 2022 University of Aberdeen's Principal's Outstanding Research Project - Early Career Award
- 2019 Cochrane's 30 Under 30
- 2019 University of Aberdeen's Principal's Prize for Public Engagement with Research - Early Career Award
- 2018 YWCA Scotland's 30 Under 30
- 2018 University of Aberdeen's Principal's Prize for Public Engagement with Research - Early Career Runner Up
- 2015 University of Aberdeen's Stewart Bourner Pharmacology Project Prize
- Research
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Research Overview
My research spans various facets of trial conduct research, including participant recruitment, retention, outcome collection, communication both within trial teams and with participants and the public, and equity, diversity and inclusivity in both the teams doing the work, and the participants within the trial population. I firmly believe that we can work to improve the efficiency of trials through effective dissemination and implementation of evidence, which will in turn improve participant experience of trials.
My work is multidisciplinary and I tend to use a mixed methods approach to ensure that research questions are tackled thoroughly. My research has included including pragmatic use of qualitative methodologies, concepts such as user-testing and user experience design which originated in design and marketing industries, and systematic reviews of non-randomised studies.
Research Areas
Accepting PhDs
I am currently accepting PhDs in Applied Health Sciences.
Please get in touch if you would like to discuss your research ideas further.
Research Specialisms
- Health Sciences
- Medical Sciences
- Research Skills
Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
Current Research
Trial Forge: a systematic approach to making trials more efficient
Supervision
My current supervision areas are: Applied Health Sciences.
NIHR Pre-doctoral Fellowship: Katie Biggs (University of Sheffield), Mapping the literature on inclusivity in trials and reviewing representation in randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of complex interventions. Ongoing, co-supervision alongside Prof Alicia O'Cathain (University of Sheffield) and Dr Liz Such (University of Sheffield).
Funding and Grants
Research Funding
Dates Award holder(s) Funding body Title Value February 2022 - February 2023 Co-Applicant (PI: Prof Alan Montgomery, University of Nottingham) NIHR Efficient Trials REcruitment in Mental health trials: broadening the ‘net’, opportunities for INclusivity through online methoDs (RE-MIND Study)
£72,944 January 2022 - June 2023 Co-Applicant (PI: Prof Shaun Treweek, University of Aberdeen) CSO (Health Improvement, Protection and Services Research) Improving ethnic diversity in trials: helping trial teams recruit and retain the ethnic groups essential for results with community-wide relevance and applicability £188,146 October 2021 - September 2022 Co-Applicant (PI: Prof Cindy L Cooper, University of Sheffield) NIHR Efficient Trials A collaborative study between CTUs and other researchers to identify the activities needed to improve representation of under-served groups in trials and understand their implementation £78,718 June-November 2021 PI MRC-NIHR-TMRP Minority ExpeRiences In Trials (MERIT) Understanding why ethnic minority groups are under-represented in trials through a rapid qualitative evidence synthesis, and mapping evidence to find solutions £9,967 Co-Applicant (PI: Prof Sandra Eldridge, Queen Mary University of London) NIHR Efficient Trials Promoting INCLUsivity through improving the practice anD utility of Ethnicity Data collection in trials (INCLUDED) £79,820 March 2019 - March 2021 Co-Applicant (PI: Prof Shaun Treweek, University of Aberdeen) Chief Scientist Office (Health Improvement, Protection and Services Research) A good use of time and money? Providing evidence for how effort is invested in primary and secondary outcome data collection in trials £224,213 March 2018 PI Winston Churchill Memorial Trust 2018 Fellowship Award for a project titled: Putting pants on the truth: Improving practice of UK sci-bloggers £8,200 July 2016-January 2018 Co-Applicant (PI: Prof Shaun Treweek, University of Aberdeen) Chief Scientist Office (Health Improvement, Protection and Services Research) Putting research methodology into practice: producing useful evidence about trial recruitment strategies for trial designers and recruiters £26,322
Travel and Conference Funding
Dates Award holder(s) Funding body Title Value October 2021 Personal award Staff Development Fund. Institute of Applied Health Sciences, University of Aberdeen Funds to attend the Westminster Health Forum Policy Conference on priorities for tackling ethnic minority healthcare inequalities £126
January 2021 Personal award Staff Development Fund. Institute of Applied Health Sciences, University of Aberdeen Funds to attend the ILM Level 3 Award in Leadership and Management course £100
June 2017 Personal award Staff Development Fund. Institute of Applied Health Sciences, University of Aberdeen Funds to attend the Evidence Live conference in Oxford (2017) £500
September 2017 Co-Applicant (PI: Prof Shaun Treweek, University of Aberdeen) Chief Scientist Office (Health Improvement, Protection and Services Research) Travel award (Global Evidence Summit, Cape Town, South Africa) £750
Public Engagement Funding
Dates Award holder(s) Funding body Title Value April 2018 Lead Applicant Public Engagement with Research Unit, University of Aberdeen – Enabling Award Funds to support inaugural Soapbox Science Aberdeen event (May Festival 2018) £430 April 2018 Lead Applicant May Festival Funds to support inaugural Soapbox Science Aberdeen event (May Festival 2018) £150 April 2018 Lead Applicant British Science Association Funds to support inaugural Soapbox Science Aberdeen event (May Festival 2018) £300 June 2017 Co-Applicant (Group award, Lead: Dr Heather Morgan, University of Aberdeen) Marie Curie Alumni Association, Scotland Chapter Funds to support HSRU public engagement activity in late 2017 £198.80
May 2017 Co-Applicant (Group award, Lead: Dr Heather Morgan, University of Aberdeen) Public Engagement with Research Unit, University of Aberdeen – Enabling Award Funds to support HSRU public engagement activity at May Festival 2017 £424.60
- Teaching
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- Publications
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Page 1 of 3 Results 1 to 10 of 24
A good use of time? Providing evidence for how effort is invested in primary and secondary outcome data collection in trials
Trials, vol. 23, no. 1, 1047Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-022-06973-8
Trial Forge Guidance 3: Randomised trials and how to recruit and retain individuals from ethnic minority groups– practical guidance to support better practice
Trials, vol. 23, no. 1, 672Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-022-06669-z
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/19111/1/Dawson_etal_T_Trial_forge_guidance_VOR.pdf
- [ONLINE] Correction
Developing an online, searchable database to systematically map and organise current literature on retention research (ORRCA2)
Clinical Trials, vol. 19, no. 1Contributions to Journals: ArticlesAn international core outcome set for evaluating interventions to improve informed consent to clinical trials: the ELICIT Study
Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, vol. 137, pp. 14-22Contributions to Journals: ArticlesDeveloping the INCLUDE Ethnicity Framework: a tool to help trialists design trials that better reflect the communities they serve
Trials, vol. 22, 337Contributions to Journals: ArticlesDoes reading a book in bed make a difference to sleep in comparison to not reading a book in bed?: The People's Trial- an online, pragmatic, randomised trial
Trials, vol. 22, 873Contributions to Journals: ArticlesFactors that impact on recruitment to randomised trials in health care: a qualitative evidence synthesis (Review)
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, vol. 2020, no. 10Contributions to Journals: ArticlesNon-randomised evaluations of strategies to increase participant retention in randomised controlled trials: A systematic review
Systematic reviews , vol. 9, pp. 1-13Contributions to Journals: ArticlesUsing systematic data categorisation to quantify the types of data collected in clinical trials: the DataCat project
Trials, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 535Contributions to Journals: ArticlesA systematic review of non-randomised evaluations of strategies to improve participant recruitment to randomised controlled trials: [version 1; peer review: awaiting peer review]
F1000Research, vol. 9, 86Contributions to Journals: Articles