Dr Rute Gomes Velosa Vieira

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Dr Rute Gomes Velosa Vieira
Dr Rute Gomes Velosa Vieira
Dr Rute Gomes Velosa Vieira

BSc MSc PhD FHEA

Senior Lecturer

About

Biography

I joined the Institute of Applied Health Sciences in May 2018 as a Lecturer in Medical Statistics and became a Senior Lecturer in August 2022. Since January 2019, I am a statistical consultant for Public Health Scotland, to support the establishment of the Scottish Congenital Anomaly Register (CARDRISS) (2019-2021) and the collaborative doctoral project 'Impact of Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) on pregnancy and postnatal outcomes of babies affected by Down’s syndrome in Scotland'.

Previously I was based at the Institute of Health and Society (IHS), Newcastle University, and had an honorary contract with Public Health England where I collaborated with the National Congenital Anomaly and Rare Disease Registration Service (NCARDRS). I also worked as a statistical advisor for the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Hospitals (NuTH), IHS research groups and Newcastle Clinical Trials Unit.

My primary research interests are related with the development and application of statistical methodologies to evaluate treatment effects in personalised medicine (including N-of-1 studies). I am also interested in the epidemiology of congenital conditions.

I also dedicate some of my time to the Royal Statistics Society (RSS), being the Chair of the RSS Medical Section (2024-     ), an Associate Editor for the Journal of the Royal Statistics Society (Series A) and a member of the judging panel for the Florence Nightingale Award for Excellence in Healthcare Data Analytics, awarded by the RSS and the Health Foundation.

Qualifications

  • PhD Statistics 
    2015 - Newcastle University 

    Thesis: Bayesian phylogenetic modelling of lateral gene transfers

    Supervisors: Prof Richard Boys and Dr Tom Nye

  • MSc Biostatistics 
    2008 - Universidade de Lisboa 
  • PgCert Statistics Applied to Biology and Health Sciences 
    2006 - Universidade de Lisboa 

Memberships and Affiliations

Internal Memberships

Current roles:

  • School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition Ethics Review Board for post-graduate studies (PGT SERB) (2018-present) - Deputy Chair
  • Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team (2024-present)
  • Medical Statistics Team (2018-present)

Past roles:

  • Institute of Applied Health Sciences Assessment Panel (2018-2024)
External Memberships

Societies

  • Chair of the Royal Statistics Society (RSS) Medical Section Committee
  • Fellow of Advance Higher Education (Advance HE)

Funders

  • Statistical assessor - Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland

Stakeholder Group

  • Member of the stakeholder group overseeing the NIPT evaluation being conducted by Public Health Scotland (evaluation of the implementation and impact of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) in the antenatal screening pathways in Scotland (introduced September 2020))

Trial Steering Committee (TSC)

  • Independent statistician for the TSC for the BEST (Best endovenous treatment, including stenting, versus non-endovenous treatment in chronic proximal deep venous disease) multi-centre randomised controlled trial

Prizes and Awards

Nominated by the students to the University of Aberdeen Principal's Excellence Awards:

  • Best Postgraduate Lecturer 2019-2020
  • Best Postgraduate Lecturer 2021-2022
  • Best Supervisor (Postgraduate Research - PhD) 2021-2022
  • Best Postgraduate Lecturer 2022-2023
Research

Research Overview

My main research interests are:

  • Statistical methods for observational and experimental studies in personalised medicine (including n-of-1 studies)
  • Epidemiology of congenital conditions

Current Research

Personalised medicine/behavioural medicine/nutrition (N-of-1):

  • The individual clinical course of severe COVID-19: a series of n-of-1 studies.
  • Determinants of adherence with weight loss and weight maintenance in the context of the Diabetes REmission Clinical Trial (DiRECT)
  • Modelling individual responses to healthier diets (PhD supervisor)
  • Quantifying the tea effect (PhD supervisor)
  • Drivers and barriers for adopting healthy and sustainable food swaps in young adults (to start 04/2023)

Congenital conditions:

  • Prevalence and survival of children born with congenital conditions in Scotland
  • Impact of Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) on pregnancy and postnatal outcomes of babies affected by Down’s syndrome in Scotland (PhD supervisor)

Other (miscellanneous):

  • Understanding Symptom Experiences Fully (USEFULL) study
  • Looking after the elderly during the COVID-19 pandemic: a focus on addressing physical activity, loneliness, and help-seeking behaviour
  • I am also a co-investigator in the UKMED88 project (Apr 2019 - Oct 2020): 'Investigating associations of post-graduate examination performance with socio-demographic characteristics, performance at medical school, medical school, SJT and foundation school: a focus on first stage examinations of MRCP, MRCGP and MRCPsych' led by Dr Isobel Cameron.

Supervision

Current PhD students:

Public Health research

    • Elinor Sebire (2021 - 2025): Impact of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) on pregnancy and postnatal outcomes of babies affected by Down's syndrome in Scotland
      • Supervisors: Rute Vieira, Sohinee Bhattacharya and Rachael Wood (Public Health Scotland). Funded by Medical Research Scotland PhD Studentships and Public Health Scotland
    • Adegoke Alabi (2021 - 2026, part-time): Do rural-dwellers experience cancer symptoms differently?
      • Supervisors: Peter Murchie, Rute Vieira and Julia Allan. Partly funded by Elphinstone Scholarship

N-of-1 research

    • Edward Ryan Payne (2022 - 2026):  Quantifying the tea effect.
      • Supervisors: Baukje de Roos, Rute Vieira and external supervisor from LIPTON Teas and Infusions (previously named Ekaterra). Funded by Unilever/Ekaterra 

Past PhD students:

  • Tilly Potter (2018 -  2023): Modelling individual responses to healthier diets (MI-DIET). Joined the HM Treasury Policy Team (Darlington, UK). 
    • Supervisors: Baukje de Roos and Rute Vieira. Funded by BBSRC-Unilever DTP
  • Claudia Cunningham (2016 - 2021, part-time): A mixed methods evaluation of the effectiveness of dental school selection in the UK and across Europe. Joined the University of Central Lancashire as Deputy Head of School (Students & Teaching) at the School of Dentistry  . 
    • Supervisors: Kirsty Kiezebrink and Rute Vieira.

Past MSc students:

  • Oluwaseun Loto (2023-2024): Exploring The Views of Women Accessing Non-invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) Through the National Health Service: A Qualitative Analysis of Mumsnet Discussion Threads
  • Sara Murtagh (2022-2023): Prevalence, mortality and burden of neural tube defects in UK and Ireland: an analysis of the Global Burden of Disease study estimates (1990-2019)
  • Felicity Osei (2021 - 2022): Prevalence, mortality and burden of congenital anomalies in Ghana: a time-series analysis of the Global Burden of Disease study estimates (1990-2019)
  • Gloire Mbaka Onya (2019-2020): The burden of Diarrheal Diseases in the Democratic Republic of Congo: an analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 1990-2017
  • Sarah Tait (2018-2019): Changes in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus burden and risk factors in Venezuela between 2000 and 2017: analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017
  • Mohammed Yisa (2018-2019): Interventions that influence epilepsy outcomes in mitochondrial disease: a systematic review

Funding and Grants

Current:
 
  • 2023-2027: RQ5b Drivers and barriers for adopting healthy and sustainable food swaps in young adults (£915,093.13) - Scottish Government - Rural And Environment Research And Analysis Directorate (RESAS)). (Co-I, led by Prof Baukje de Roos - Rowett Institute) 
  • 2021-2025: Impact of Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) on pregnancy and postnatal outcomes of babies affected by Down’s syndrome in Scotland (£110,192 - Medical Research Scotland PhD Studentship and Public Health Scotland). (Principal Supervisor, 2nd Supervisors: Dr Sohinee Bhattacharya and Dr Rachael Wood (PHS)) 

Past:

  • 2020: Understanding the individual clinical course of severe COVID-19: a series of n-of-1 studies (£11,670 - Medical Research Scotland COVID-19 Research Grant). (PI, Co-Is: Prof Siladitya Batthacharya and Dr Calum Kaye)
  • 2020: Looking after the elderly during the COVID-19 pandemic: a focus on addressing physical activity, loneliness, and help-seeking behaviour (£48,541 - Scottish Government CSO Rapid Research in Covid-19 programme). (Co-I, led by Dr Kathryn Martin)
  • 2019-2020: The relationship between the UKCAT and overall performance across four UK dental schools - A multi-site study (£5,419 - UK Clinical Aptitude Test (UKCAT)). (PI)
  • 2019-2020: Person-centred care: identifying clusters of multimorbidity in hospitalised patients (£9,749 - NHS Grampian Endowment Research Grants). (Co-I)
  • 2010-2014: International PhD scholarship SFRH/BD/70050/2010 (103,000€), co-funded by Gulbenkian Foundation (Portuguese Government) and European Commission
  • 2009-2013: National PhD scholarship SFRH/BD/63881/2009 (57,000€), funded by Gulbenkian Foundation (Portuguese Government)
Teaching

Teaching Responsibilities

  • Understanding and Applying Regression Modelling (PU5559) - 2nd semester (MSc level) - co-course coordinator (2022/23 - present) and lecturer (Unit: Poisson Regression) (2022 - present)
  • Applied Statistics (PU5017) - 1st semester (MSc level) - course coordinator (2019/20 - 2022/23) and lecturer (2018/19 - present)
  • Applied Statistics (online) (PU5522) - 2nd semester (MSc level) - lecturer/marker (2018 - present)
  • CPD intermediate statistics course for staff - lecturer (2018 - 2019, 2023 - present)
  • Statistics course for PhD students - lecturer (2018 - 2022)

Non-course Teaching Responsibilities

I am a member of the School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition Ethics Review Board for postgraduate studies (PGT SERB) since 2018 and its deputy chair since 2023.

I am a member of the Institute of Applied Health Sciences Assessment Panel since 2019.

I am also a personal tutor of eight undergraduates and an advisor of three PhD students.

Publications

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