King's College London

Professor Stephen Bremner will be working to grow capacity for trials and epidemiological research in the Faculty, working closely with the King’s Clinical Trials Unit (CTU) and statisticians and epidemiologists across the other health faculties.

Stephen’s research primarily focuses on improving healthcare in community settings. He does this by designing and analysing pragmatic randomised controlled trials of complex interventions. One such trial Stephen is co-investigator of is the NIHR Health Technology Assessment-funded 'Palliative long-term abdominal drains versus repeated drainage in untreatable ascites due to advanced cirrhosis: a randomised controlled trial (REDUCe 2 Study)’. The intervention comprises several components, including community nurse/carer-led drainage, administration of prophylactic antibiotics, home visits, referral to community palliative care services and ascitic fluid sampling.

As co-Editor-in-Chief of the BioMed Central journal Pilot and Feasibility Studies, he has a particular interest in improving the design, analysis and reporting of such studies. He has been co-investigator on a wide variety of NIHR and MRC-funded trials across a diverse range of specialties including mental health, palliative care and public health. Stephen also co-chairs the Statistics Operations Group of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration Registered CTU Network.

Aside from clinical trials, Stephen’s research spans a broad range of epidemiological studies using linked routine patient datasets from primary and secondary care as well as observational data. He is used to employing a variety of classical and modern designs to investigate the health effects of air pollution, the causes of childhood allergy and risk factors for severe mental illness and consequent health service use.