Dr Richard McNally
Reader in Epidemiology

  • Email: richard.mcnally@ncl.ac.uk
  • Telephone: +44 (0) 191 282 1356
  • Fax: +44 (0) 191 282 4724
  • Address: Sir James Spence Institute,
    Newcastle University,
    Royal Victoria Infirmary,
    Queen Victoria Road,
    Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4LP,
    England,
    United Kingdom

Introduction

I am Reader in Epidemiology and Director of the Northern Region Young Persons' Malignant Disease Registry, in the Institute of Health and Society. My research interests are in spatial, paediatric and lifecourse epidemiology of chronic diseases. I have a special interest in methods and analysis of clustering of chronic diseases. I am a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, an associate member of the Children's Cancer and Leukaemia Group and the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology. I was an invited partipant in the geographical studies of childhood cancer which were undertaken by COMARE.

Background

I am a Reader in Epidemiology with particular interests in statistical and spatial epidemiology.

Roles and Responsibilities

Research

Qualifications

B.Sc., M.Sc., D.I.C., Ph.D.

Previous Positions

Lecturer, Applied Statistics, University of Reading, 1987-1990
Lecturer, Applied Statistics, Sheffield Hallam University, 1990-1991
Senior Statistician, Leukaemia Research Fund Centre for Clinical Epidemiology, University of Leeds, 1992-1998
Deputy Director & Senior Biostatistician, Cancer Research UK Paediatric & Familial Cancer Research Group, University of Manchster, 1998-2005

Memberships

Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society
Associate member of the United Kongdom Children's Cancer Study Group
Member of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology

Honours and Awards

Best poster prize for epidemiology, International Sociery for Paediatric Oncology, Berlin, Germany, October 2008

Research Interests

Statistical Epidemiology
Disease clustering
Childhood Cancer epidemiology
Congenital anomalies

Other Expertise

Diabetes epidemiology

Current Work

(1.) Childhood cancer epidemiology (PI: funded by the North of
England Children's Cancer Research Fund & collaborations with
the University of Leeds).
(2.) "Environmental contributions to the aetiology of bone tumours in
young people: small area analyses" (PI: funded by the Bone
Cancer Research Trust).
(3.) "Environmental contributions to the aetiology of thyroid cancer"
(PI: funded by the JGW Patterson Foundation).
(4.) "Leukaemia and birth weight by gestational age: a population-
based record-linkage study" (PI: funded by Cancer Research UK).
(5.) "Application of statistical methods for spatial and temporal
analyses of Andalusian health data" (Supervisor: PhD project).
(6.) "What is the best way to combine the use of two standardised
autism spectrum disorder assessment tools" (Co-I: funded by
Northumberland and Tyne & Wear Strategic Health Authority - Gen
Hospital).

Research Roles

Principal Investigator.
Co-Investigator.
Named collaborator.
Supervisor.

Postgraduate Supervision

Current PhD students:
(1) Baslio Gomez Pozo (2006-)

Successfully completed PhD's
(2) Joan Williams, PhD, Leeds (1997). Thesis entitled:
"Development and application of statistical clustering
methodologies to disease incidence data to delineate possible
relationships between disease groups".
(3) Nor Aini Abdullah, PhD, Newcastle (2007). Thesis entitled:
"Epidemiology of hypospadias and cryptorchidism".

Esteem Indicators

(1) Invited expert participant on the Department of Health Committee
on the Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (COMARE),
Geographical Assessments Sub-Committee (GAS).[2003-]

(2) Invited Oral presentation at the Children with Leukaemia
Scientific Conference examining factors affecting the causes of
leukaemia and other childhood cancers (6-10 September 2004,
Westminster, London):
"Clustering of leukaemia and other childhood cancers in the UK
provides aetioogical clues".

(3) Invited lecture at the 2nd Bahrain Cancer Conference (20-22 March
2001):
"The hygiene hypothesis, breast feeding, the immune system and
childhood leukaemia"

(4) Invited chair of the Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Session
at the 2nd Bahrain Cancer Conference (20-22 March 2001).

(5) Invited lecture at a meeting of the General Applications Section
of the Royal Statistical Society, London (December 1997):
"The geographical distribution of the leukaemias and lymphomas in
parts of the UK".

(6)

Grant reviewer for:
Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro (AIRC)
[Italian Association for Cancer Research];
Children with Leukaemia;
Economic and Social Research Council;
Irish Health Research Board;
Leukaemia Research Fund;
North Western Regional Register of Peer Reviewers.

(7) Reviewer for the following journals:
Applied Statistics;
BMC Cancer;
Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Preventionp;
European Journal of Cancer;
Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics;
Haematologica;
International Journal of Cancer;
International Journal of Epidemiology;
Journal of Epidemiology and Biostatistics;
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health;
Journal of Medical Genetics;
Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition;
Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A;
Leukemia;
Leukemia and Lymphoma;
Medical and Pediatric Oncology;
The Lancet;
Transactions B of the Royal Society.

Funding

Current funding: North of England Children's Cancer Research Fund; Bone Cancer Research Trust; JGW Patterson Foundation

Other recent funding: Department of Health; Northumberland and Tyne & Wear Strategic Health Authority (Gen Hospital); Cancer Research UK; Environment and Human Health Programme, NERC; Newcastle Heathcare Charity; Spanish Health Research Board; BUPA Foundation

Industrial Relevance

N/A

Patents

None

Keywords

Cancer, Childhood, Clustering, Epidemiology, Statistics

Postgraduate Teaching

Lectures on the M.Res. course