Dr Rumana Newlands

Biography

Rumana graduated from the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (India) in Pharmacy and qualified as a registered pharmacist in India. Following graduation, she worked as a pharmaceutical researcher and gained experience designing and running clinical drug trials. She subsequently obtained an MSc in Health Management and an MSc in Public Health and Health Services Research. In 2016, she was awarded a PhD in Health Sciences from the University of Aberdeen. Her doctoral research focused on clinical trial design and evaluation using mixed-methods approaches and stakeholder engagement. Her PhD thesis was titled: “Design and Outcomes of a Feasibility Randomised Controlled Trial of Lifestyle Intervention in Women Treated for Breast Cancer".

She joined the Aberdeen Centre for Evaluation (formerly the Health Services Research Unit) in 2012, contributing initially to the SUDDICU study, which examined infection control practices in intensive care units. Since then, she has worked across a broad portfolio of methodological and applied health services research: C-GALL (a randomised controlled trial of uncomplicated gallstone disease); the development of core outcome set (COS) for symptomatic uncomplicated gallstone disease; Registry-based RCTs in Surgery; the TRiaDS implementation Research Programme (Pharmacy, Optometry and Dentistry); STEER (developing and piloting evidence-based interventions to improve participant retention in clinical trials); PREP-AI-R (preparing for the evaluation of an AI-assisted diagnostic tool for breast cancer detection in a real-world setting); REINFORCE (evaluation of robot-assisted surgical services in the NHS) and PARTIAL (evaluation of a randomised trial comparing partial versus radical nephrectomy for renal cell carcinoma).

She is currently working on ESTABLISH (a randomised controlled trial evaluating treatments of acute limb ischaemia) and PanacEa (a randomised controlled trial of a pain management programme for endometriosis).

Prizes and Awards

1. University of Aberdeen Principal's Excellence Awards (2022) for Outstanding Research Team- iCAIRD

The iCAIRD team worked with academia, clinical and industrial stakeholders to drive innovation and change in diagnostic services working towards new methodologies like using artificial intelligence (AI) service for patient benefit.

2. She received prize for best presentation (as a student) at the Nutrition Society Annual Conference, 2012.

Research Overview

• Clinical trial methodology including the design and evaluation, and implementation of complex designs for improving trial efficiency and reducing research waste

• Evaluation of complex interventions to improve clinical practice, patients’ health and quality of life

Current Research

She is contributing to the process evaluation of two clinical trials (REINFORCE and PARTIAL).

She is also contributing to a rapid qualitative evidence synthesis: What are trial recruiters' reported influences on recruitment and retention to mental health randomised controlled trials?

Collaborations

UK Salivary Gland Cancer Research Working Group (ongoing)

Acceptability of artificial intelligence in breast screening programme (ongoing)

King's College London Breast cancer screening evaluation work (2022-2024)

Funding and Grants

Katie Gillies, Irfan Ahmed, Miriam Brazzelli, Moira Cruickshank and Rumana Newlands. How to measure outcomes defined as core for evaluating the effectiveness of interventions to treat uncomplicated symptomatic gallstone disease: generation of consensus based recommendations. The NHS Grampian Endowment Research Grant 2017- amount £11,905.00

Teaching Responsibilities

• She marks the MSc course assessment for Evidence-Based Health (PU5031)
• She teaches the Qualitative Health Research module (PU5529)
• She supervises MSc research projects (PU5992)
• She is a tutor for the Fundamental of Research Design course.